


Invasion Force

by Tradanui



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Post-Scratch, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-07-12
Updated: 2011-09-28
Packaged: 2017-10-21 08:14:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/223001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tradanui/pseuds/Tradanui
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Scratch, the Kids were transported back to their home planet, still retaining traces of memories and even scattered remnants of their in-game powers. After years of living their lives as normal kids, growing up, they're coming face to face with a past they don't quite remember. On temporary hiatus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Something Familiar

**Author's Note:**

> I have the first few pages of this already written out, but I'll be uploading slowly, as I go back through to check for errors. Chapters will generally about this size, possibly smaller. Feedback is of course appreciated!

John pulls his backpack onto his shoulder and takes off at a run out of his apartment. It’s still really early in the morning, so he lets his feet come up off the ground a little, letting the wind speed his movement over the pavement and grass. It has been 5 years, 3 months and some odd days since he was caught up in a game that gave him the incredible power to command the very air around him. It ended in a huge explosion, and even when he strains to remember, he can’t really recall what happened, just that he was suddenly sitting in his front lawn in a bright blue hood, staring up at the moon as a mass of meteors appeared on the horizon, streaming by the Earth but never coming close enough to be dangerous.

He knows that there were others involved, and sometimes when he dreams, he sees grey skin and sharp teeth and piercing yellow eyes, but when he wakes, he scribbles down the descriptions in his dream journal and nothing ever comes of it. He was happy to be home, to have his Dad back, to go to school like a normal kid.

He’s happy now to be in college. He’s happy that he gets to see the other three kids he once played online with. But something is still missing, and sometimes when the sky is dark and the stars are shining bright, he can almost remember something very important.

He settles back into normal running as he comes around the corner of his apartment complex and almost skids into the back of the bus waiting there. He climbs aboard and sits next to his best friend, the coolest kid and gets a few disgruntled looks from nearby females. Dave must have been saving his seat.

-1-1-1

He gets halfway through College Algebra before he’s falling asleep again. The teacher has one of those dry, drawling voices, and the back of his head is bald and wrinkled and it looks like a brain when the skin scrunches up. John giggles quietly and puts his head in his arms. His thoughts drift off, and he’s trying to scribble notes with one hand but he knows they’re going to be chickenscratch. He closes his eyes and daydreams, and as usual, there is a harsh, grating voice telling him something, and it’s really important, but he can’t hear it.

Someone jostles him when they get up to leave the classroom and he jerks awake, blue eyes focusing on the pencil in his hand, then the paper under it. There are faint scribbly drawings of hearts and diamonds and some other shapes he can’t even decipher. He packs up and goes to his next class, ready for the break he gets after that. It’ll be nice to catch up with his friends for lunch and avoid learning for a little while.

He has a surprising number of friends besides the ones he met online. There are a few girls that started hanging around with him because they liked Dave, but soon found that John played classical piano and turned their interest to him, in a platonic way. A few guys he met in various clubs, but mostly he hangs out with the girls. He just feels more comfortable with them.

By the time he gets there, there is quite a bit of commotion around one of the girls’ laptops. He figures she’s got a video game running and goes to get some food, but they wave him over urgently, so he goes. He stands behind the girl and looks over her shoulder along with a few other people. It’s a live news feed from somewhere in the southwest, it looks like, and the video is crappy, but that must mean it’s really important.

The reporter gestures frantically behind him towards a large… something. It’s big and hulking and mostly silver and black, and John thinks at first it’s a building that’s on fire, from all the smoke.

The girl, Jessica, turns around and adjusts the glasses on her nose, looking important. “It just crashed, like, a half hour ago and they’ve already got this many reporters on the scene. I’m so glad. I wouldn’t miss this for anything. Fuck class.”

John takes a minute to digest her words and then it hits him. It crashed. It’s on fire. It’s a fucking spaceship.

“Holy shit,” he says, not even noticing the weird looks he gets for cursing. He leans back down and stares fixedly at the screen, a stupid smile spreading across his lips. He knew it. He always believed in aliens and now there was finally proof.

His brain is almost ready to process the fact that aliens are totally real when the ground shakes and the building shudders and the most horrible roaring crash drowns out every sound in the air, including the scream bubbling up in his lungs. He falls to his knees and he watches the windows shatter as if in slow motion.

When it’s all over, it looks like the room has gone through about a hundred earthquakes. The lights are swinging back and forth and car alarms are going off in the parking lot and Jessica is sobbing quietly, clutching the people closest to her. John stands even though his knees are shaking and tries to keep his calm.

He looks out the empty windows and his heart slows to a stop, his breath coming out in little panicked gasps. The smoke from impact is quickly blowing away from the huge hulking mass and it’s definitely identical to the spaceship he was just ogling from the safety of Jessica’s laptop. But this one isn’t somewhere in Texas, it’s right here in his school’s parking lot, on top of a lot of student parking.

Slowly, the panic starts outside, kids running and screaming, and while he’s still shocked motionless, Dave skids into the room and grabs him by the jacket.

“John. Egbert. Wake up.” He’s not as cool and collected as he usually is, but John will forgive him. They are probably about to be invaded by an alien species. Dave shakes him again, more forcefully this time, and John finally, finally, snaps out of it.

“Oh, uh what?” he says, intelligently. Dave looks like he wants to slap him, but he refrains.

“Dude, we have to get out of here,” Dave says as evenly as possible. “Whatever that thing is, it’s opening.” John whips around to look at it again and sees that, yes, it seems to be shifting and opening. But something in him has to see it, so when he turns back to Dave all he can say is, “I have to,” before he pulls out of the blonde’s grip and sprints toward the door.

-2-2-2

When he finally skids to a halt near the crashed spaceship, there are already several dozen police cars and a few unmarked vehicles that he figures probably belong to Area 51 or something. There is a large portal on the nearest facet of the ship, like a door, kind of. And even as he watches, a figure steps out onto the platform to observe the humans.

The alien is wearing what looks like a latex suit and armor was alchemized together. It has two legs and two arms, and one head as far as he can tell. The suit is black but there is bright red running the course, like streams of lava or veins of blood. The gloves curl into claws at their tips and as John stares is horror and wonder, he wonders if it is actually a suit.

A few feet in front of him, men in uniform point firearms at the alien, but a man in a black suit tells them harshly to stand down. John waits with bated breath as the alien walks slowly, calmly forward. Assuming the suit is a good representation of the body within, the alien is a little taller than the average human, and a little thinner, the bone structure similar but just alien enough.

There is a blood red crest on the alien’s chest, the Cancer symbol, he realizes, like a badge. The alien walks all the way down the ramp until it stands a few feet away from the man in the black suit, who is trying his best not to look scared out of his mind. He begins to talk, a long-winded speech about greetings and welcome to earth if you would just come with us, and he reaches for the alien and immediately regrets it.

From the ship’s portal, a dozen other similarly dressed aliens emerge, all pointing various weaponry. John notices, and he tells himself he is silly for thinking about this while there are aliens threatening someone, but each of the suits has those streaks of color in so many shades he can’t count them, but only the leader is red.

He assumes the red one is the leader.

The policemen point their guns again even when the suited man tells them to stop, and this seems to be getting awfully out of control. John steps forward a few paces, his eyes still fixed on the alien with the red-striped suit. It waves down the soldiers at its back and gestures at the man in the black suit, but there is obviously a language barrier here.

“Egbert I swear to god I am going to beat the shit out of you you are not even worth keeping around you are so much trouble,” Dave’s words come out in one breath as he finally catches up and punches him in the shoulder. But instead of pulling him away like John expects, he stands next to him and watches the scene before him with interest.

At the sound of his voice, which he didn’t bother trying to quiet, several policemen turn to glare at them, and a few of the aliens seem to turn their heads to look in their direction as well. One of the soldiers makes a strange gesture and says, “These pink monkeys let their young out in public. That’s so weird.”

And immediately Dave says, “I think your face is weird.” Every head, human and alien turn to look at the two boys and John feels his face heating with embarrassment. “Dave,” he whispers, “what are you doing?” it’s kind of a rhetorical question but he feels the need to ask all the same.

“No, it can’t be talking to you,” says one of the other aliens, quieter, but still Dave responds, “Hell yes I’m talking to you. Do you need me to write it down or some shit?” he is such a coolkid. He is taunting an alien. An alien with a weird gun-like device that is probably a death ray or something.

It takes maybe five seconds for the man in black to ask, incredulously, “You can understand them?” and for John to realize that he can, too. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realizes they were not speaking English, but he understood when they spoke.

Dave responds the way Dave does everything. “Yeah, dude. Shit, it’s not that hard.” Then he turns to look at the alien leader and says, “Sup.”

And John watches the most amazing thing that has ever happened in the entire universe. The alien leader does a x2 double face-palm combo.


	2. Introductions

Eventually the troop of aliens gets into formation and stalks angrily behind the red-clad leader as the suited men take over a nearby school building in which to speak to the aliens. John and Dave are asked to come along and they agree mostly because they know that they can’t decline. As they all walk together, John feels the overwhelming presence of the alien leader walking up quickly behind him.

 

He tries not to jump or show any kind of outward reaction because he doesn’t want to humiliate himself or anger the alien. But the alien slows so that they are walking almost directly beside each other and John has to glance up. He is surprised to see the multitude of joints in the armor near the neck on the helmet, and the fact that he can see through the glass of the face plate just a little. He can make out the outline of slightly curved eyes and the wide, undiluted pupils as big as a human’s iris.

 

The alien is staring down at him with the same fascination that John is staring up. He feels little calmer, and he smiles warmly at the tall alien, his overbite sticking out over his lip. Maybe they’re not that different after all. The shielded face lifts away, so that he can’t see through the helmet again and they continue walking toward the building that is indicated to them.

 

They finally make their way into the building and into a common area, where they are asked to make themselves comfortable. The soldiers disperse about the room to stand at the entrances, and they are quickly flanked by humans to guard the doors as well. The black suited man that seems to be in charge is left in the center of the room with the leader alien and the two college boys.

 

Dave lounges across a chair, falling into it like he is at home in his shitty apartment and not in the middle of the first human/alien contact. John looks back and forth from the alien to the older human, and then slowly takes a cautious seat on the couch behind him. Much to his surprise, the alien sits with him, though a small space separates them.

 

After a moment of tense silence, the alien reaches up and pushes at its helmet until it hisses and shifts, makes a soft clicking noise and then the helmet comes off.

 

The alien has thick black hair and grey skin, but other than that, looks mostly human. Its eyes are yellow with black pupils when they open, and John notices orange nubs sticking up out of the mass of unruly hair. Horns. The alien makes an expression at him like a grimace, and it pulls lips back from razor sharp teeth and this is _all so familiar_.

 

“I am Karkat Vantas, General. 9 solar sweeps old, Redblood troll from Alternia.” The alien says, and the voice John hears is decidedly male and grating and rough. It sends a shiver down his spine. He sits closer, completely unconscious of his action. After a moment, the alien turns to him, stares with those slitted yellow eyes and commands, “Well? Tell him, fuckass.”

 

John jumps in surprise, then conveys the message to the suited man, who introduces himself as “Special Agent Kenneth Rogers.” It sounds like a fake name, but John just nods. Karkat nudges him with an elbow and makes a familiar gesture as if to say, well?

 

“What? I mean, he just said it.”

 

“Yeah but I don’t speak human. I understand you, but it’s different.”

 

“What?” John asks, drawing back a little. “Why me?”

 

He hesitates a moment and then whispers, “We’ll talk about it later. I’m not exactly sure, but I have a few ideas.” John is a little taken aback by the idea that he will be left alone with this alien. But he’s surprisingly okay with it.

 

They talk, and John repeats the words he hears, which seems very silly, but is apparently necessary. Dave pulls out his iPhone and starts to text people like this is nothing. John is so jealous of his coolkid persona.

 

Special Agent Rogers gives an exasperated sigh and says, “Young man, I’ll need you to put that away” to which Dave responds, “Fuck you man, I’m playing Angry Birds. This level is a bitch,” without taking his eyes off the device or even turning to face the man. The suit squirms nervously and looks like he’s going to say something nasty, or have Dave removed, or something, but Karkat gives a soft breath of laughter and it captures his attention again.

 

In the end, after what must have been hours of discussing and negotiating the aliens agree that they will retire to their spaceship for the night and will not leave the premises until after they’ve contacted the human authorities again. And at the last second, John finds himself repeating the words, “and we will keep the human males with us tonight.”

 

But the special agent just nods in agreement and stands up. Karkat grabs John by the arms and hauls him up when he stands, pulling him pretty gently from the couch. The special agents escort them back to the huge metal ship and leave them there. John shivers a little as the group of alien soldiers circle Dave and him and herd them into the portal to take them inside.

-4-4-4

“Dear jegus, General, what did you bring back, dinner?”

 

Karkat snarls at the alien who asks that stupid question and several of them snicker in response to his anger. His group begins to take off their armor in a small room off to the side of the door but the leader doesn’t go with them, instead, he stands in the center of the room and addresses the soldiers looking down at him from several levels of spaceship.

 

“These humans are not for eating, nooklickers,” he shouts up at them all, his expression furious. “You will leave them alone. You will not harass them. If you do,” he pauses for dramatic effect. “I will tell Serket that she has complete permission to do whatever she wants to you.” Many of the aliens groan, but most of them absolutely horrified.

 

“Come on, this way,” Karkat says, leading the way through several corridors and up a few staircases until they come to a room filled with metal circles on the floor with various symbols. Karkat walks directly to the one with the red Cancer, just like the one on his chest, and gestures for them to come closer. When he’s in range, Karkat reaches out and grabs John’s arm, pulling him snugly against the alien’s body, and steps onto the circle and suddenly-

 

They are in another room.

 

“This is my respiteblock,” he says casually, like teleporter pads are completely normal. “You’ll be staying with me because I don’t trust those bulgesuckers to mind their own business even with the threats.” He looks around and looks confused before he pushes you off of the circular podium and suddenly Dave appears in the space in a flash of light.

 

“I thought you weren’t gonna let me in,” he says smoothly, taking in his surroundings. “I knocked and everything. Do you even know what knocking is?” Karkat stops him before he can say anything else, gesturing to a door with one hand and rubbing the bridge of his nose with the other.

 

“You’re staying in there. Go.” He pushes Dave’s back out of the room and presses a few lights on the door and it clicks locked. Dave doesn’t bother to fight, just goes, still playing on his iPhone the whole way.

 

John finds a bed that looks like it’s never been used and sits on the edge. He looks back up at the alien and his eyes widen as he watches the tall man pulling at a zipper at the back of his neck, bearing grey skin to John’s eyes. He tries to look away as Karkat pulls the skin-tight suit from his body, but he can’t, his eyes roaming over the compact muscles and he is really glad when his eyes drift down to find that the alien is wearing a pair of boxers under the suit. It’s really kind of weird, when John thinks about it. Boxers?

 

The alien stands tall and proud before him, his chest littered with light scars. There are a pair of nubs at his sides, on his ribcage, that look like the remains of amputated limbs. His muscles are long and lean and there is something about him that is overwhelmingly attractive. He moves away, shoulders hunching down as if he can’t stand up straight without conscious effort.

 

“What is your name?” the alien asks while he is rummaging through a pile of… something. He seems to be listening tensely, waiting for his reply like he doesn’t trust it.

 

“My, uh? Oh! I’m John. Egbert. It’s nice to meet you.” John tries to be really friendly. This is important. And he really kind of likes Karkat even though he’s been really crabby so far. The alien freezes in his movements and in a split second, he’s hovering above John, grabbing his face and squishing it like he’s  trying to see how elastic his face is.

 

“You looked so familiar, but I thought,” his voice trails off as he stares into John’s face and this close up, he is really pretty, and his face is relaxed and awestruck instead of angry. “John.” He says the name like a prayer, and then he shuts his eyes tight and pulls against John’s neck until their foreheads are pressed together.

 

“John,” he says again. “I looked everywhere for you, but.” He opens his eyes and he glances into John’s face and then pulls away as if he’s been burned. “Fuck. You don’t even fucking remember me, do you?”

 

He topples over onto the bed and sinks into the mattress, the sheets wrinkling around him for the first time. John stares down at him, his heart beating so loud he can’t hear his own breathing. There is something so utterly familiar about the alien, but he can’t quite place it. So he shakes his head and feels horrible for being the reason that Karkat’s expression turns once more to disgruntled.

 

“Are you gonna tell me why I can talk to you? I mean, where you know me from?” the human asks, and he lays down on the bed on his side so that he can face the other man, letting his eyes wander over his hair, those little candy corn horns, his grey skin. It looks like there are dark circles around his eyes, but maybe it’s normal for aliens.

 

Karkat rolls grumpily, looking into John’s blue eyes and gives a soft sigh. It’s a sigh of defeat. He reaches out to tuck a stray hair behind John’s ear, making him shudder a little.

 

“I played a game, once, back on my home planet, with eleven of my friends. A lot of shit went down, but eventually the game led us to create another universe. Yours. And from your universe, four humans began to play the game and somehow interfered with our session.” John feels the horrified expression leaking onto his face but can’t do anything about it.

 

Flashes of memories surface, grey skin and black hair, that Cancer symbol, but grey. Karkat telling him to run, to get the scratch, they have to end this. Kissing him, telling him goodbye as he lies bleeding on the ground, the red staining everything it touches. Telling John that he doesn’t hate him. It’s something else, but there’s no time. For once John does not remind him that he is not a homosexual.

 

John starts when Karkat wipes a tear from his face, the pads of his fingers surprisingly soft. “We all died at the end, and we all woke up on Alternia as if nothing had happened. But I thought it meant that you were destroyed. We always thought that only one of our species could survive. I,” he falters, and John is staring up into his face and seeing how much he’s grown, matured, from the vague memory that is trying to bury itself in the back of his brain. “I was fond of you.”

 

John lets it go. John is not going to mention the kiss. Maybe Karkat regrets it. Probably. Instead, he reaches out to the alien, the troll, he remembers, and pulls him close against his body, and this feels familiar too. They curl up together and stay that way, long enough that Karkat’s breathing evens and John feels himself falling asleep.

 

His brain begins to go fuzzy, but he distinctly remembers this exact feeling, lying with the gangly troll, one of his grub-joints pressing against John’s side, but he remembers it differently.

 

It’s been a long day. John forces himself to sleep.


	3. Uninvited to the Sleepover

Dave pokes and prods everything in the room that doesn’t look strictly normal. There is a large blinking panel on one wall that when abused enough, provides warm food. At least, he thinks that’s what it is, but it is questionable.

 

Miraculously, he still has a little cell phone signal, so he sends a text to his older brother and hopes the government isn’t somehow intercepting it like a bitch. He paces the room and hopes that John isn’t being fondled or dissected or probed in the other room, but he is fairly certain that he’ll be just fine. There is a look in their host-alien’s eyes when he looks at John, like he’s reminded of someone he knew a long time ago, and Dave is confident it’ll keep his buddy safe.

 

His iPhone buzzes and he looks down to see the response and smiles a little.

 

Dave: So ive been abducted by aliens just thought you should know

Bro: shit kid, that’s not what I’m sending you to college for

 

Now he has to repeat the predicament and make Bro believe him, which may or may not take a few hours. The irony between them is so strong that it’s hard to tell when they’re being honest sometimes. He taps back on the phone and tires his best to get the message through. It’s pretty weird to be telling someone about how he’s onboard an alien spaceship and John is in the next room making nice with the invader leader.

 

He wanders around little longer and he’s being tempted by what looks like another door, this one not locked. He pushes on it around the edges and it eventually opens for him, leading into another adjoined room with huge tanks full of green liquid and computers and a few types of machinery that are completely baffling. It looks like an ecto-biology lab, from what he remembers of John’s description of the one he visited. But that can’t be.

 

There’s a huge monitor against one wall that has at least a dozen screens with what looks like security footage. Most of the cameras are pointed at machines or those weird teleporter pads. But a few of them cover empty rooms that look like they’ve never even seen the light of day. He squints at the screens, actually props his shades up on his head to look at them better.

 

There are four rooms, each decorated in bright splashes of color and statues. It looks like a trophy collections except there are no trophies, just the backdrop. One of them is done is all red and white and black and his breath catches a little when his eyes run over the banner on the wall that is emblazoned with a scratched record. It’s not just a record. It’s his record, the one that was on the shirt he used to wear all the time.

 

Sure enough, the blue room has those little wavy lines that they’ve always associated with the Heir of Breath, and there’s a purple and black room with a more artistic rendition of those evil squiddles and the green and white room has a statue of a dog with no face.

 

He’s not sure what to make of it, and he’s not ready to face the possibility that they may be in a lot of trouble. He pulls his shades back down over his eyes as he hears the whooshing sound of another door opening and the click of feet on the metal floor.

 

Inside the huge tanks creatures shift and stir, swimming closer to the glass as they try to make themselves more noticeable. When he looks more closely, he can see that they’re kind of like fish, seals, but some of them he can’t even compare to something from Earth.

 

The lights are low but it’s hard to miss the alien that’s walking toward the tanks. It has horns like Karkat, but they’re _fucking huge_. Like a longhorn or something crazy. And a mohawk. The alien doesn’t even look over at him, just jogs the last few paces to the nearest tank and lays his hands on them and says, “Hey guys,” in a soft voice. His eyes seem to be glowing a little in the dark as he stares lovingly at the creatures frantically vying for his attention.

 

“I know,” he says, soothing. “We’ll find somewhere soon, I’m sure.” He is actually talking to the aquatic life, Dave decides, and he assumes that the alien is actually communicating with them, because if he’s crazy then Dave is probably fucked. Dave takes the moment to look over this new alien and finds that tickle in the back of his eyes that he usually associates with things-that-should-not-be-remembered. Like the scar on Bro’s chest and how he cried the first time he saw it.

 

This alien isn’t quite as tall as Karkat, but he’s got those huge motherfucking horns, and he’s not wearing the spacesuit that the other soldiers all had on. Instead he’s wearing a simple get-up of shirt and jacket, and shorts that only reach about midway down his thighs. Which would be pretty funny if his legs weren’t metal. The rest of his skin is grey and even like Karkat’s, but his legs are definitely… not made of flesh.

 

He shifts his weight a little, and it draws the alien’s eyes and everything about him that looks scary or alien or confusing melts away because those eyes are large and sad and look like they belong to an abandoned puppy that doesn’t know what it did to deserve being left on the side of the road. The alien steps toward him, cautiously, ignoring the tanks entirely.

 

“Hi, uh, I didn’t know you were, um, in here,” the alien stutters a little, still walking slowly forward like he’s approaching a scared rabbit. Dave holds his ground. The alien smiles and it bares his sharp teeth but Dave can’t find it in him to be afraid. He remembers more than John, most days. Today, he recognizes the stutter, the shadows under his eyes, and remembers his sad attempts at trolling and rapping and flying and living.

 

“I know you,” Dave says quietly, and it echoes in the room and makes the alien’s eyes light up with something like hope. “You played that fucked up game with us, right?” He tries to remember the symbol. He knows they all had symbols. The alien nods a few times, slowly, and Dave wonders how he doesn’t topple over when he moves his head.

 

“Tavros Nitram,” he introduces himself, sticking out a hand for Dave to grasp. “Dave Strider,” he responds, and this feels like the manliest meeting of two species that has ever occurred as they shake hands. When they step back from each other, the feeling between them is comfortable, like old friends finally meeting again. Which, in a sense, is true.

 

“So how did you even get in here?” The troll asks as Dave follows him around while he checks on the various animals in the green tanks. Every once in a while he presses his grey hands against the glass and uses his crazy animal communication skills to talk to them.

 

“Well, your ship crashed here and John decided he just had to see it up close and then we got scammed into staying the night.” The troll laughs a little and mumbles something about how they didn’t crash that’s just how the ship lands and sure it’s not too graceful but it works.

 

“He’s in there with Karkat now. I got uninvited to the sleepover. I hope they’re behaving in there.”

 

Tavros is quiet, and his eyes are fixed purposefully on the glass tank in front of him. “I’m sure they are,” he says finally. “No matter how much he, um, missed John, Karkat wouldn’t want to make him uncomfortable. And if John kind of doesn’t really remember him, then…” He trails off, voice sad and leeched of energy.

 

“Besides, he wouldn’t, uh, compromise our mission or anything probably. He’s become a really good leader, despite how crazy he, uh, used to be.” Tavros begins to walk away toward the door he came through. Dave follows. No way he’s just gonna hang around in Karkat’s extra bunk or whatever.

 

“What is you mission anyway?” Dave asks Tavros’s back. The alien pauses mid-step and turns around. “Why are you here? You went back to Alternia, right?” Tavros sighs deeply like he’s about to be in a lot of trouble.

 

“Alternia’s gone, Strider. That’s why we’re here. We’re looking for a new home.”

-6-6-6

 

Dave ends up following Tavros around the spaceship, over more of those teleporter pads (“they’re called transportalizers, actually”) and through doors and up straircases until they arrive at a set of rooms with a huge Taurus symbol on the floor in an orangey brown color. The troll explains all the way things that Dave is beginning to remember about the time they all shared in the Veil and in the final battle.

 

“So, yeah, and most of us were dead so all we could do was, um, watch,” Tavros says as he points toward something that looks like a covered waterbed. Dave sits on it, and it shifts as expected. The alien is standing in front what is probably a closet and maneuvering his way out of his shirt, trying not to tear it on his horns.

 

“But when Karkat finally went down, John kicked into action. The two of you, uh, got the scratch started and just as we were, kind of, disappearing, Karkat died in John’s arms and he, well, I mean.” His voice gets scratchy and hoarse and he trails off. He lets out a little breath and then says, “John told him that he loved him. And it was really sad. And then there was this huge, um, explosion of light and then we were, kind of, back on Alternia.”

 

There’s this awkward silence that hangs between the two of them, and Dave remember vaguely the sight of John’s tearstained face as he held the dying alien boy and tried to press his wounds closed. He shakes his head to clear the image. Too fucking sad.

 

“So you guys went home and had your normal lives again, just like us?” Dave asks, because he can’t stand the quiet. Tavros finally gets the shirt off of his horn where it got stuck and tosses it somewhere. “Went to troll school and had your romances and shit? Did you ever have to deal with that imperial bucket drone or whatever?”

 

Tavros is blushing a little, and it makes Dave smile. He loves getting people riled up, and the Taurus is so easy to embarrass. He rolls his eyes at the human and turns back around to pull at the shorts.

 

Dave means to look away. He totally does, but his eyes drift up to the alien’s bared back and sees these long lines, like seams, down his back. He wants to think they’re scars but they’re too perfect, too purposefully designed. Before he can stop himself, he’s standing behind the troll and his fingertips are brushing against the markings.

 

Tavros jumps in surprise and the motion presses Dave’s fingers _into_ one of the slits. He makes a strained coughing sound and something pushes against Dave’s fingers. He withdraws, apologizing under his breath.

 

“Sorry man, I didn’t mean to molest you or anything,” he can’t think of anything else to say so he doesn’t. Tavros mutters that it’s oaky and runs a hand over the slits in his flesh, brushing against them like he’s trying to brush away dirt.

 

“Um, it’s okay, I know you didn’t, really mean to possibly do that.” He still looks really grossed out, but he’s smiling. “So um, I guess you could possibly, maybe just stay here with me, instead of going back to Karkat’s rooms. I mean there are the other rooms, I, uh, guess you maybe saw them? But I, um, don’t think they’re, really, uh, ready.” Dave nods in agreement and sits back on the bed. The alien looks suddenly really nervous, but Dave figures he probably doesn’t have sleepovers very often.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to give some of that characters traits of their ancestors, given that they are adults now.


	4. Old Prejudices

John wakes in the warmth and safety of someone’s arms, and he can’t understand the feeling of grief and longing that’s swirling around in his chest. He shifts and the arms around him grow tighter, pulling him against a bare grey chest. It’s not really surprising that he’s waking up with a tall alien man cuddling him in slumber. It should be, but it isn’t.

 

John turns his head a little and stops when his ear presses against the flat planes of Karkat’s chest. He can hear his heart beating. It is the most pleasant noise he’s ever heard. There’s a sound coming from the main entrance, a beeping, and then the door opens. John squeaks a little and tries his best to hide under Karkat’s body.

 

The troll that enters the room looks down at them tangled together with a strange expression that borders on, “What the fuck?” He grumbles something under his breath but before he can actually say anything, there’s this low rumble of a growl coming from Karkat’s throat and his eyes are open, narrowed into dangerous slits. He sits up slowly, protectively shielding John from the intruder.

 

“Is there a reason you’re in my quarters, fuckass?” his voice sounds like it’s about to give way to a snarl and the soldier look properly terrified.

 

“Sir. General. Um,” he falters, his eyes swinging back to John, then away, then fixing steadily on a point above Karkat’s head. “His Highness wants to see you.” He shivers under Karkat’s intense gaze and then backs out of the room as quickly as he can.

 

Karkat lets out a sigh and falls back onto the bed, reaching for John to pull him close almost instinctively. He doesn’t even notice what he’s doing until John is tucked safely below his chin and staring up at him. He loosens his grip and John wriggles away a little, but doesn’t pull out of his arms.

 

“Hi,” Karkat says, his eyes lowered and looking mostly at the pillow beside him instead of at John. The human smiles goofily at him and reaches up to ruffle his hair.

 

He’s more tolerant than John would have imagined. He lets the human card his fingers through his hair, gently run them over his horns, though it makes him gasp a little. After a minute or so, he finally pulls away and stands, going to pull on the red-streaked suit from yesterday.

 

“You’re coming with me,” he says to John, motioning for him to straighten his appearance. “His Highness will surely want to see you.” The tone is formal and forced, and probably a little sarcastic.

 

Karkat opens the door to the room where he’d pushed Dave last night and after looking around for a moment, picks up a note off the floor. He scans over it and his face settles into something between his usual resentment and worry. “Tav…” he mutters under his breath.

 

“Is everything okay?” John prompts, but the alien assures him it is, and they leave the room through the door, not the transportalizer, and begin the complicated process of getting… wherever they’re going.

 

It takes at least twenty minutes to arrive in what looks like an audience room, with high vaulted ceilings and majestic architecture but there are piles of stuff everywhere. Nearest them is a pile of keyboards, and further away a pile of stuffed dragons. John doesn’t really get time to look at each pile as Karkat leads them to the end of the room where two aliens in full armor stand guard with weapons.

 

“Vantas, here to see His Highness,” Karkat says, and one of the guards gives him the smallest bit of hassle but his partner touches his arm and tells Karkat to pass. John hears him whisper, “fucking mutant blood,” as they pass.

 

“Well hey there motherfuckers,” someone says, a deep, drawling voice like someone who’s had a little too much to drink. “I see you started the motherfucking party without me, my brother.” This troll is taller than Karkat, and with tall, curvy horns sticking out of the mass of wildly curling hair that probably puts him a total of two feet taller than John. He has never felt so small. He’s wearing black and purple, and his face is painted white like some sort of clown and when he looks down at John, some instinct in him screams to run the fuck away.

 

“Well if it isn’t my main human brother,” the tall troll says, reaching down to clap John on the shoulder. “It has been a long time, motherfucker.” He looks at the human expectantly, keeps smiling and finally turns to his General and says, “He don’t talk much. What’d you do to him?”

 

Karkat instantly bristles and calls him some names that rolls off his tongue so fast John doesn’t quite catch them. Then he says, “They don’t remember us, is all. None of it. Nothing.” He’s glaring hard into the tall troll’s smiling face, emphasizing his words like threats. Maybe they are.

 

“Alright, best friend. Calm down.” He turns to look at John again. “Gamzee Makara, Highblood and Leader of this motherfucking race here.” He seems a little flaky to be the leader, the real leader, but John nods and smiles. “And you’re John motherfucking Egbert. Heir of Breath and Karkat’s-”

 

The other troll in question reaches up and puts his hand directly over his king’s mouth, one eyebrow twitching dangerously. John looks between them and, sensing no real danger, begins to laugh. Gamzee looks like he might too, but his friend’s hand is still covering his lips.

 

It takes maybe fifteen seconds for the situation to turn horribly wrong.

 

One of the guards looks into the room, snarls something and points his weapon. He screams, “How dare you disgusting gutterblood touch His Majesty you hideous sack of mutant shit,” and fires something like a gun and very suddenly there is a fine mist of red blood in the air and Karkat is falling to his knees, clutching at his shoulder.

 

John is on his knees too, heart racing and in his throat and tears stinging his eyes and he cradles the wounded alien against his chest and watches in complete horror as the guard walks closer, gun still raised, sick pleasure in the smile on his face.

 

He only makes it a few steps before Gamzee rushes forwards and picks him up by the throat. His eyes go wide and confused as he drops the firearm to the ground in surrender. But the highblood just smiles calmly at him and says, “You are why I created a new empire,” and bashes his skull against the floor. Thick blue blood pools around him and Gamzee moves some of it around with the toe of his boot before meandering back to John.

 

Karkat is perfectly conscious, but cursing up a storm, and his shoulder is definitely out of commission for the moment. John is stroking his hair fervently and he’s kind of starting to cry and this all feels so awfully familiar.

 

“Relax now, brother,” Gamzee says to him, slowly pulling him away. “He’ll be fine this time. Your man’s not going anywhere.” Other guards are showing up, and Gamzee orders them to clean up the disgrace splattered all over the floor.

 

He carefully picks the wounded alien up from the floor, even though Karkat snarls and tells him he’s fine, he can do it. John clutches his hand and whispers nothing at him, even though, intellectually, he knows it’s going to be alright. He’s still in a panic.

 

“You’re okay,” he whispers. “I’ve got you. I’m here. I lo-. I, uh. I‘m here.” Karkat’s hand squeezes around John’s and he struggles around in Gamzee’s hold until he can look down at John and sigh in exasperation. He looks more than a little flustered at the treatment, but his front is covered in slick blood and it’s dripping down onto the floor.

 

John expects them to go to some kind of clinic. Surely a space-station this large must have something like that. But Gamzee takes them back to Karkat’s room, sets him gently on his own bed and turns to leave.

 

“I’ll have someone see to your wounds, General,” the highblood says, and his tone runs a shiver up John’s spine. He’s already on the bed with Karkat, unable to stop from pressing his hands against the bloody material over the wound. “I am going to address my people. And I may even kill a few more. I’ll see you motherfuckers later.” The door closes behind him and Karkat thumps his head on a pillow.

 

“This is going fucking fantastic so far,” he mutters then turns into John’s side and mumbles something else.

 

“What?” John asks, trying to peel the alien away from him without moving his shoulder. No luck.

 

“Nothing,” the Cancer responds, crawling into John’s lap and then laying on top of him. “I can’t tell you. It’d ruin the surprise.” He closes his eyes and rests there on John’s shoulder, and all the human can think are those words that almost came out of his mouth. The words he’s never said before.

 

 _I love you._

-8-8-8

 Tavros spends the morning being interrogated by Dave, and though sometimes his questions are worded to sound rude or unnecessary, most of them are legitimate questions about how their lives had been different after the scratch.

 

“So did you all get hooked up or whatever? Is Eridan still forever alone and all that glub glub shit?” He asks, digging through the pile of clothing he’s found on Tavros’s floor. He wishes some of it fit him. It’s kinda badass.

 

“Um, well, some of us did,” Tavros answers as he goes through some files on a husktop. Though Dave finds that he can understand Alternian speech, he sure as hell can’t read the written language. “Eridan and Feferi eventually became matesprits, actually. I’m not sure what happened, but I, uh, guess it just did.” Dave gives him an unbelieving look over his shades, and the Taurus smiles at him.

 

“Gamzee and I are moirails now,” he says, looking down at the floor. “And uh, Sollux and Eridan had a kissmessitude but that ended pretty badly. We, uh, try to keep them away from each other mostly.” He stands over Dave and pulls a few garments from the pile. “Uh, what are you doing, anyway?”

 

“Just looking,” Dave answers and finally sits down on the floor. “See if any of it’s my color.” He looks up at Tavros and adjusts the shades on his face. It’s actually pretty dimly lit, so it’s hard to see anything. “What about Karkat?” He uses all the lessons Bro ever taught him about not letting his emotions show in his voice.

 

“Um, well, he never really got over John,” Tavros says, and he winces a little when he looks down again at the human on his floor. “Even after we were pretty sure that you were all dead, he, uh, said he couldn’t do it. He didn’t really talk much about it, but Kanaya said his heart didn’t, um, have room for anyone but John.”

 

Tavros sits on the floor next to Dave and rifles through the clothing mindlessly. They sit in silence for a few minutes while the Taurus picks out an outfit for the day. Dave sneaks a peak up the leg of his shorts, staring intently at the tops of his robotic legs. They’re really cool, even though the place where they touch his flesh kind of creeps him out.

“Hey, um, mister,” Tavros says, and he sounds like he’s about to start laughing. “My eyes are, uh, up here.” Dave’s head jerks up and he feels a slight blush on his cheeks forming. He can’t believe he just got caught staring. He tries to keep his poker face while Tavros chuckles quietly at him.

 

“What about you?” Dave asks, trying to redirect the conversation. “Besides, the moirailship, I mean. You ever have luck with the spiderbitch or anyone?” Tavros reaches over and, after a slight hesitation, ruffles his blonde hair gently.

 

“Um, no, not really.” Tavros looks at the floor again and Dave can see his sharp teeth worrying at his lower lip. “There was someone I really, uh, pitied and um, liked, but. I don’t think he ever even noticed me.” He laughs low in his throat, and then looks back at the human with that wincing smile he’s becoming familiar with.

 

“That blows,” Dave says, because he doesn’t know what else to say. The only thing he’s ever experienced like that was that one week he thought he had a crush on John, but when they tried to give it a try it was just too funny and they decided not to talk about it again. People don’t turn down Dave Strider. People notice Dave Strider. “Maybe I can give you some pointers or something.”

 

Tavros shakes his head slowly, and Dave is glad that he’s slouching because it means he doesn’t have to worry about being knocked over by those horns. “It’s alright. It probably wouldn’t work out, I mean. It’s okay.” He stands up and begins to dress and this time Dave manages to look away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, wow. Um, thank you to everyone who left kudos, and comments. I am really flattered right now. I think this is the last I'm uploading tonight, but I'll try to get the next few chapter up tomorrow.   
> Thank you again! <3


	5. In Which Karkat is Very Rude

An alert pops up on Tavros’s husktop just as he’s finishing dressing. Dave is a little caught off guard by the tight black suit he’s wearing. It’s almost the same as the other soldiers wear, and running with lines of orange-brown, but he wasn’t expecting it. The back has two slits cut in perfectly vertical lines and while their purpose is a mystery, Dave is beginning to form a hypothesis about them.

 

Dave calls the troll’s attention to it, since he can’t read it. Tavros leans down to read it and groans, looking like he wants to back his head into the keyboard, but instead he goes quickly to the closet, pulls out a black bag and gestures for Dave to follow him.

 

They walk too fast for Dave to keep asking the questions he’s got lined up. It’s obviously important. They walk down several hallways that seem to be taking them nowhere and then suddenly they’re back in the room with the tanks. But instead of stopping to amuse the creatures that stir immediately at Tavros’s presence, they keep going, through the other door and into Karkat’s quarters.

 

As they enter, they can hear a raspy voice growling out obscenities.

 

“No, you listen, fuckass. Fuck you, fuck your grubmother, fuck your couch, fuck your shoes. Fuck your ugly fucking haircut. Who the fuck let you go out in public?” Dave can’t help the amused laugh that he tries to smother with a cough, and Tavros closes his eyes and sighs deeply before the door opens and they step into Karkat’s main room.

 

Karkat is on his bed, teeth bared at a troll standing just inside the room, who is staring at him in disdain. John is standing to one side of the bed, quietly saying things like, “Come on, Karkat, she just wants to help. It’s okay.” and then to the other troll, “I’m really sorry, miss.” But as soon as they notice Tavros’s arrival the female troll looks at them and says, “Oh thank gog,” and vacates the room like it’s on fire.

 

“I’m fucking fine!” Karkat growls at him, but Tavros can see that he’s panting slightly, and his shoulder is still bleeding sluggishly. “There’s no reason for everyone to be making a fucking deal of this. What do you want, Pupa Pan?” If looks could kill, Tavros would at least be partly maimed by the glare that’s aimed in his direction.

 

John shifts nervously until he sees Dave and then he waves and smiles weakly. Dave starts to walk forward towards him, but Karkat shifts protectively and Dave stops his advance, making it look casual by pulling out his phone to check it. The battery is almost dead and he has about twenty missed calls. He’s watching Karkat from behind the protection of his shades.

 

The troll leans toward John whenever he moves near and it makes Dave’s lips quirk up in a smile. And John is fretting over the alien like a mother hen, petting at his hair and even moving to grab his hand a few times. Dave isn’t exactly the most romantic man on the planet, or universe, or whatever, but he’s got a good feeling about this.

 

 

“Oh shut up,” Tavros says as he invades Karkat’s comfort zone, pulling things from the black bag. He pokes at the fabric of Karkat’s suit and says, “And take this off. I don’t have any, uh, singles, but maybe I can get them for you, later, possibly.” Dave has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop from bursting out in laughter and John actually snorts when he giggles.

 

Karkat glances at the human beside him, sees him laughing, and sighs in defeat. “Unzip that, Egderp,” he says, motioning with his uninjured arm to his back. John complies and pulls the garment off of him as gently as he can, but Karkat still hisses when it drags against his wound. He pulls the top down Karkat’s chest and lets it hang loose there. As soon as the wound is uncovered, John’s fingers brush over it, so lightly that Karkat barely feels it and then he plants a very gentle kiss on the abused flesh.

 

No one moves for a moment, and John slowly has the decency to look horrified at what they all just witnessed. His face turns red and he goes still like if he doesn’t move no one will notice him. Everyone pretends not to notice him. Karkat swallows thickly and lets out a little sigh. He holds out his arm for Tavros to tend.

 

Tavros cleans the wound and wraps a weird, troll-flesh colored cloth around the injury and then tells John to press on it. John looks like he wants to say, “Why me?” and the look Tavros gives him clearly says, “Because, um, I don’t want him to, uh, bite me, possibly.”

 

John gets on the bed behind Karkat and presses gently on the wound and Karkat grunts at him to press harder. He tenses and leans back against the human. The scene is sickeningly sweet. Dave has to look away.

 

“Alright, you’ll have to hold that pretty tight for like, possibly, ten minutes and then it should be, um, fused pretty well.” Tavros tells John as he puts everything back in his little first aid kit or whatever it is. He looks over at Dave and then back to the bed, where John is looking nervously at his own hands where they press against Karkat’s shoulder.

 

“Well, take care, uh, I guess,” Tavros tells them, and starts to head for the exit. Dave shrugs and follows, throwing a “See you guys later” over his shoulder. As soon as the door closes behind them, Dave lets out a breath, and Tavros mimics him.

 

“Well that was interesting,” Dave comments as they walk back through the ectobiology lab, this time at a slower pace. Tavros stops to communicate briefly with the occupants of a few tanks and then proceeds back out of the room. There’s a strange, comfortable feeling between them, and Dave has the overwhelming urge to reach out and ruffle Tavros’s mohawk. Tavros chuckles a little and leans down to allow the gesture. He sucks in a breath and bolts back up when Dave’s hand touches the base of his horn.

 

“Oh, uh, sorry, that uh,” there’s a light flush across his cheeks and he won’t quite look at the human anymore. “That really tickled.” Dave checks his phone again, for lack of anything to say.

-0-0-0

Because of Karkat’s wound, he does not participate in the next trip onto the surface. John stays with him, feeling a sense of responsibility for the alien. The strange wrap that Tavros made for Karkat’s shoulder finally fused with his skin and besides being a little rougher, it is almost completely undetectable. Still, John tries to insist that Karkat keep everything including clothing away from his arm, in case the pressure of cloth reopens the wound.

 

But Karkat doesn’t want to just sit around with no shirt on, so he pulls an old uniform from his closet and instructs John to cut out one arm, as far up as he can. It looks a little funny, but it makes the troll more comfortable. He dares John to make fun of him with his eyes, but the human just tugs on the edge of the fabric so that it’s further away from the bandaged area.

 

They hear about the second meeting with the humans from Dave and Tavros, who seem to have become close friends. Apparently Dave thinks that the secret agent looked unhappy to see that the aliens hadn’t devoured him. Tavros tells them that Gamzee has asked for a meeting with world leaders, as many as will speak to them, and the arrangement is being set up as they speak.

 

“I think he, uh, did really well,” the Taurus reports to them. “He was really calm and Dave didn’t even translate all the times he, um, said ‘motherfucker.’”

 

 Tavros tells them that the Capricorn will have another meeting in a few days, and in the meantime, the trolls are going to make themselves at home. The US Government is trying desperately to keep them on their ships and off of Earth soil, so when Dave says, “but we gotta get the girls up here,” no one really knows how to go about it.

-1-1-1

Dave accompanies Tavros to a huge room where a small group of trolls stand over a desk, speaking quietly to each other. His eyes are drawn to a smear of muted blue on the floor, like someone spilled a can of paint but couldn’t quite clean it up. As they near the other aliens, Tavros stands up straight, his form impressive when he isn’t stumbling and stuttering in hesitance.

 

As they approach, the convened aliens move away from each other until the only one still standing at the desk is the tallest one, with the curved horns and white makeup. He turns toward them and reaches out with one arm to tug the bull-horned troll into a hug. It takes a moment, but Dave finally remembers that Gamzee is Tavros’s moirail as he watches the tall troll pet happily at Tavros’s hair

 

“Well hey there, coolkid,” the Capricorn says at Dave, his voice drawling as usual. Dave has spent a lot of time translating that voice in the last day, but he still isn’t quite used to the timbre, the way it makes chills run over his skin. “How are you two motherfuckers doing today?”

 

“We were just in seeing your General grumpypants,” Dave replies, watching their sickeningly sweet interactions while a strange sensation coils in his stomach. “Telling him and Egbert about how things are going on the surface. Watching John turn into the loving wife.”

 

“But in all honesty, Gamz, we had something we wanted to talk to you about.” He doesn’t stutter as much when he talks to the leader. Tavros smiles up at the taller toll and pushes his hands away impatiently as he tries to talk.

 

“Sure, go right on, motherfucker,” the highblood says, and he leans against the desk and makes it look comfortable. It probably isn’t.

 

“Well, you remember there were, uh, two other humans, you know,” Gamzee nods and looks determinedly at Tavros’s face in a way that makes it obvious he is fighting to pay attention. “We should really, maybe, um, get them here as well. Besides, I mean, Kanaya will want to see them. And stuff.”

 

The clown-painted alien laughs gently at Tavros and slings an arm around his shoulders again. “Sure thing, friends. We’ll ask someone to bring them to us.”

 

The Capricorn issues a command to ask Agent Rogers to bring the other humans to them as soon as possible and makes sure to make it sound like a completely ridiculous request. “Gamzee thinks it’s, uh a good idea to make demands sometimes so that they, maybe, remember that we can. Besides, it’s easier to, um, make threats than actually show force. That might get dangerous.”

 

Gamzee says he’ll get the information needed from Dave, and then asks Tavros to leave them alone. When the shorter troll stutters but doesn’t move, the request becomes an order, and the hard look in the highblood’s eyes is alarming. Dave pretends he isn’t afraid to be left alone with him. But Tavros goes, and promises to wait outside.

 

Gamzee steps closer, slowly, like a large, stumbling, drunken cat stalking prey. Dave stands his ground, refusing to step away, and sets his shoulders so that he seems completely disinterested.

 

“So what were those other kids’ names?”

 

“Rose Lalonde and Jade Harley. They won’t be all that hard to find. Should be in town unless they’ve skipped out.”

 

Gamzee nods in approval of the information and stands tall to loom over the human. His yellow and black eyes are staring down, cold, hard, and threatening.

 

“So, did you and my Tavros decide to give the red a try?” he asks, and his voice is dangerous, like his eyes, and Dave can’t help but back up a step.

 

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Gamzee.”

 

“That’s the wrong answer,” the troll growls, and before Dave can move, an arm is gripping his chin, pulling his face up to look down into it. “I swear I will rip you to pieces if you hurt Tav. He’s a good man and he doesn’t deserve your bullshit, coolkid.”

 

“I seriously,” Dave tries to say, but his words come out a little disfigured with the pressure on his face. “I don’t know what you mean. Red what?”

 

The pain of fingers digging into his flesh lessens as the highblood pulls back a little, setting the human back on his feet more solidly. “Tavros has always liked you, Strider. I’m just here to tell you that if you break his heart, I will break you. Alright? Cool.”

 

He wanders away, back to the desk and makes a few quick notes while Dave takes a deep breath and quickly makes for the exit. He almost runs into Tavros where he stands outside the doorway, pacing nervously. He grabs Dave immediately, staring intently at his face and the human worries that Gamzee’s fingers left marks.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“Yeah, man, I’m fine.”

 

They walk in silence around the ship and eventually make their way back to Tavros’s respiteblock. The whole while, Dave cannot stop thinking about the troll’s confession. _“There was someone I really, uh, pitied and um, liked, but. I don’t think he ever even noticed me.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first of I all I tell everyone who reads this, that Karkat's rant is actually based off of one of my friends, who roleplays/cosplays him.   
> Additionally, thank you to everyone for being so nice and supportive! I've only had one rude, not-sure-if-trolling comment, so I think that's doing exceptionally well.


	6. I Saw Him in Dreams

“Jade, please stop giggling, I have a correspondence to answer,” Rose Lalonde asks her roommate, her eyes glued to the screen of her laptop, fingers rushing over the keys. She spares a single moment to glance up from the device, aimed at the other girl in the room. Jade is still sitting against the far wall, scribbling furiously on a pad of paper. When Rose had asked about it earlier, she had only replied that she needed to take notes before “it” happened and had not said anything else.

 

“Sorry, Rose,” Jade says, voice perky. “It’s all very exciting, don’t you think?”

 

“Exciting is one way of putting it, yes.” The blonde agrees, sitting back from her keyboard to cast a worried glace out the window. The military had been escorting students off the campus in a very slow, methodical order and unfortunately Jade and Rose would be locked in their building until it was their turn to leave.

 

Before either of them can say anything more, were they been inclined to, someone knocks on their door, sharply. They look up at each other, unsure as to whether or not they should answer it. Perhaps it is finally their turn to be evacuated.

 

Rose unlatches the lock and pulls the door open a little to the sight of several black-suited men which she immediately identifies as government related. She pulls the door open all the way and stands before them, silent, waiting.

 

“Misses Lalonde and Harley?” the leader asks, and Rose nods demurely in return. “We’ve been asked to retrieve you. You are required at the crash site.” Rose tries not to let her surprise show on her face, stands completely still, even as Jade scrambles to shove her notebook into her schoolbag.

 

“Okay!” Jade chirps, throwing things haphazardly into the bag and then looks up. “Come one, Rose! You need to get some things together!”

 

The man outside the door nods once and reaches out to close the door himself, giving the girls a small fraction of privacy.

 

“Why do I feel like you know what’s happening when I don’t?” Rose asks the air as she pulls her shoulder bag off of her bed and carefully packs it with anything she feels like taking.

 

“Because I’ve been dreaming of this for a long time,” Jade replies, slipping on her shoes and waiting by the door. Rose glances up at her once while she tosses a makeup bag into her travel supplies.

 

Jade has always had strange dreams, Rose knows that. Before, during, and after the game they played those years ago. Sometimes she would wake up in the middle of the night just to write them down. If Rose was still awake, she would listen, and it was not long before she gave up trying to put any meaning behind them.

 

“I used to dream, over and over,” she elaborates, finally reaching to put a hand on the doorknob behind her. “That there was this boy, this really angry boy. And he was so mean! But in my dreams, he was always behind John, like a shadow. He had grey skin and yellow eyes. Do you remember? I think I told you about it.”

 

“Yes,” Rose answers simply, moving to stand beside her roommate. “I always thought he was your concept of what John would be like if he were to go Grimdark like I did.” Jade rolls her eyes a bit and opens the door. The men in the hallway part before them and assume a guard position.

 

“I always knew,” Jade whispers to her, a little too loud to prevent her words from being overheard. “He was an alien. And he was real.”

-3-3-3-3

Approaching the alien spaceship is an experience that she will never forget, holding her body as relaxed as possible. Rose glances around, hey eyes scanning over the metal surfaces, trying to remain calm. The suits haven’t explained why they’ve been brought here. But according to what Jade was whispering about, Rose has to assume that they’re not being given as sacrifices. Why would aliens ask specifically for them?

 

By the time they reach the main entrance, a small party of aliens has gathered there, all dressed in black leather suits, helmets, armed. The closer they get, the more excited Jade becomes, bouncing on her toes and trying to rush forward. Only the wall of larger bodies stops her from running right up to the invaders.

 

The welcoming party shifts around a little and a much shorter body steps forward, lounging like he owns the ship.

 

“I don’t believe it,” Rose mutters under her breath, resisting the urge to stare up at the heavens in question. “Thank you, gentlemen,” she says, louder, and the men around her start at her first words to them. “We’ll be fine from here.”

 

The blonde takes Jade by the arm and slowly leads her away from the agents, warily watching the aliens as they walk closer.

 

“Strider,” she greets, and can’t quite keep the fondness out of her tone.

 

“Sup,” Dave says, waving one hand casually. “Well, girls, I hate to be the one to tell you, but I’ve sold you out. I told the aliens I’d provide some new concubines, and here you are.” His poker face is perfect, as usual. Jade cocks her head to one side, and Rose wonders if she’s not sure what the word means or if she is contemplating the situation.

 

There’s a moment where Dave and Rose stare at each other, not speaking, in which he silently tells her that they’ll talk, soon. Not yet. Then he reaches up and casually adjusts his shades.

 

“Hey, Rogers. Yeah, I know, they still haven’t eaten me. Think I might try to marry myself into the royalty, make it a fucking interstellar alliance.” The man Dave is addressing, the suited man who led the girls to the spacecraft, exhales heavily and turns right around, walking away as though it is all he can do to stop himself from punching the blonde in the face. Which is probably true. High-strung people don’t do well around Dave Strider.

 

“Well?” Jade asks, looping her arm through Dave’s and looking up at him. “Are you going to escort us now?” He nods, lets a little smile slip, and offers his other arm to Rose. She takes it, grinning, and does not hesitate when he leads them into the entrance. If this were going to be dangerous to them, he would have warned them.

-4-4-4-4

Inside, the aliens begin to strip their outer armor, and Jade and Rose try their best not to watch. It just seems so rude. Dave is making quite a show of knowing where he’s going, walking a little fast so that the girls have to speed up to catch him.

 

“Where are we going?” Jade asks, looking around in wonder. There’s really not much to look at once they’re in the labyrinth of hallways, but she does so anyway.

 

“Meeting up with some old friends,” Dave answers, and there’s a smile in his voice that’s rare. He gets lost twice, pretends he isn’t, and follows the tunnels until they snake back around to avoid admitting it. Rose can feel the smile stretching her lips as they walk in looping circles. Eventually, they stop at a section of wall that must be a door. Dave knocks against it, and it opens slowly.

 

Dave walks right in like he owns the place. Jade and Rose enter slower, Rose cautious and Jade still staring around at everything.

 

It’s a nice room, with basic furnishings but a warm atmosphere. As they enter, someone shifts near the door, drawing their attention. This is the first of the aliens they have seen without the armor. He is tall, like all of them, with huge horns sticking out of his head, a mowahk of unruly hair and grey skin. But his eyes are kind, and he smiles a little at them, bowing his head down shyly.

 

“I know you,” Jade says, smiling up at the alien, whose expression turns delighted. This man could never be frightening. “You killed my grandpa!” she cries, and leaps forward, throwing her arms around his waist, and snuggling into his chest. Rose is unsure whether this is the correct action for such a statement.

 

“It figures you’d remember.”

 

Rose turns, cranes her head a little, to find John sitting on the edge of a bed, his blue eyes bright, happy, and smiling like an idiot. Beside him, slumped back against an arrangement of pillows, sits another of the aliens, his narrowed yellow eyes roaming over them slowly. His horns are surprisingly small, and nubby, compared to the other.

 

Jade spins, hearing his voice, and bounces her way across the small space, giggling, to her ectobiological brother. She pauses and looks over at the alien sharing the sitting space, eyes going wide, fascinated. Not afraid. Never afraid.

 

“It’s you,” she says, then turns to look at Rose. “It’s him!” she says, and the alien she is pointing rather rudely at is narrowing his eyes at her like he’s thinking about biting off the offending finger. It takes Rose an embarrassing moment to connect the comment with their earlier conversation. John’s shadow, from her dreams. Of course.

 

“Apparently it’s me,” he grumbles, shifting on the bed, drawing himself closer to John, and Rose can’t help but smirk a little. Looks like he’s not done shadowing after all. It’s then that she notices the bandages on his arm, realizes he is injured.

 

“I wasn’t aware that there had been an incident. I never heard shots, at least.” She says, directly addressing the alien. He is familiar, like the other one, but when she tries to remember, a hazy dizziness overcomes her.

 

“Internal.” He responds, his voice low and dangerous. “It was an internal affair. Your people had nothing to do with it.” He doesn’t elaborate, but she can tell from the way John’s features go worried and sad, that it wasn’t a simple accident.

 

“I feel as though I am in the dark,” Rose says quietly, glancing at the way Dave stands close to the door, shutting it gently behind them, the way John doesn’t bat an eyelash as the alien beside him moves behind him to his more vulnerable back.

 

“Oh gosh! Right! Um, well this is Karkat,” John says, gesturing to the alien at his side, who nods. “And that’s Tavros.” He points at the bashful alien. “They played that game with us, only we didn’t quite remember I guess. They, uh, they’re our friends!”

 

“Um, but maybe you’d remember, uh, Kanaya better,” Tavros says, his voice gentle. Rose stiffens in surprise at the name, the way it sounds, the way it makes her shiver a little, her heart beat faster. What is this?

 

“She was your friend.” Karkat says, but the way the word twists out of his mouth is strange, and Rose blushes a little at the connotation. It’s subtle. She doubts any of the others would pick up on it. She’s surprised he was capable of it in the first place.

 

Karkat gestures at the wall with his injured arm, immediately dropping it limply back to his side, suppressing a hiss of pain. Tavros moves to the wall, pressing at a few buttons until the wall itself shifts aside, revealing a hidden opening. While Tavros digs through the new space, Rose lets her eyes trail back to the bed.

 

“You gotta be more careful,” John chastises, reaching over to gently run his fingers over Karkat’s bandaged arm. Karkat mutters something under his breath, eyes half-closed, relaxing against  John as the boy leans over him. Rose smiles more openly at the pair, and Karkat catches her glance, immediately regaining his usual scowl.

 

“Here,” Tavros announces, holding out a small black square. Rose takes it, tests its weight. It’s maybe the size of a book, dark, shiny black, and fairly heavy. She runs her fingers around the edges and almost drops it when a small light comes on. It must be a screen of some kind.

 

A moment later, a photograph appears on the surface. There are three aliens in the picture. Karkat, in full battle armor save the helmet, stand in the center, eyes narrowed but lips curling up in what is probably the beginning of a smile. To his left stands a slightly taller troll with an intricate headset weaving between two sets of short, sharp horns. The troll wears a pair of bi-colored glasses and a grin that shows off his pointed teeth and his especially long canines.

 

The troll on Karkat’s right is the one that draws her attention. It’s why she had to concentrate on the other two before she was drawn into this third figure. The third troll stands like a model, her chin held high and a gentle smile on her painted lips. Her hair is fashionably short, her dark eyes sparkling with intelligence.

 

“That’s Kanaya Maryam. She was the Sylph of Space, when we were playing sgrub.” Karkat speaks loudly enough that Rose hears him over the sound of her own heart. There is something so familiar about this girl, but she can’t quite place it. Her fingers trace over the photograph unconsciously for a moment before she hands the black device back to the Taurus.

 

“I see,” she answers. She glances at Dave lounging on the wall by Tavros, who is rustling around, trying to place the object back into the wall, then turns to peer at John and Karkat on the bed.

 

“Is there anyone that Jade might be particularly happy to meet again?”

 

Karkat and Tavros look at each other, considering, and then the Cancer says, “No. She’s not here yet. Your dream buddy,” he clarifies, nodding at Jade, who squeals happily.

 

“But she’s coming?”

 

“I think so.” Karkat answers, eyes drifting down to the thin blankets beneath him. John reaches out, his hand covering the grey one he finds, and squeezes.

-5-5-5-5

Rose closes the door behind her, assuring Tavros that she is not feeling well and just needs to lie down for a while. She didn’t exactly expect them to have a room prepared for her. As she looks around the modest-sized room, breathing out a little sigh of wonder.

 

There is a bed in the center of the room, laden with soft blankets in shades of lilac that perfectly matches the shirt she is currently wearing. The comforter is even peppered with a collection of evil squiddles, expertly sewn in as decoration.

 

In fact, the more she looks around, the more she feels that she is in a shrine dedicated to her thirteen year old self. The room is covered in drapes of delicate silks, with a comfy reading chair settled amongst piles of books. When she looks them over, she determines that they are the troll equivalent to her wizard fiction. There is even a small dresser full of knitting equipment. This room was made for her.

 

She sits on the bed, contemplating the room, this ship, the game. She slips into meditation, something she used to do to prevent herself from feeling the overwhelming Grimdark urges that still flow into her sometimes. Her mind drifts, and she lets it, whirling through her memories of Sburb, picking out the places where her memories burn at her.

 

She falls into the deeper meditation, ripping away the shields in her own mind, throwing everything back into the Light.


	7. What We Offer

Karkat insists that he is well enough to leave his room, and that he has some important things he needs to discuss with Gamzee, but John thinks it is more likely that he wants to get away from Jade. Despite being super friendly and lovable, she’s also pretty touchy, and Karkat really doesn’t like that. He growls a little, this low rumbling sound in his throat, when she’s too affectionate. It does something weird to John when he hears it. His stomach drops out from under him, his knees go a little weak, and his skin tingles like it remembers something.

 

He’s still thinking about it when they finally come to a stop outside of an elaborate door. This isn’t the same place where they met Gamzee previously, John decides. Karkat knocks on the door, rapid and loud, and John thinks that someone who knows him well enough would know who it was just from the knock!

 

He’s proved right a moment later when the door opens and Gamzee’s voice says, “Hey motherfuckers, come on in and get your social on. How you doing, best friend?”

 

They enter, Karkat already grumbling and sighing dramatically under his breath, but John thinks he looks pretty happy to see the troll leader again.

 

“The girls are here,” Karkat replies, instead of answering the highblood’s question. The painted Makara just smiles gently at them, his half-lidded eyes drifting back and forth between then.

 

“Hmm?” the sound is less than a word, but enough to be a question, and Karkat actually rolls his eyes a little. There are no guards in this room, just some chairs, like a private sitting room. This must be part of Gamzee’s respireblock.

 

“The other two humans.”

 

“Right, right. The motherfucking ladies, how could I even forget,” Gamzee says, smile wide on his lips. “Now what?”

 

John takes a seat on a nearby chair, sinking into the plush feel. He enjoys watching Karkat interact with Gamzee, with Tavros, with anyone really! He likes to see the little ways in which the troll reacts, the way he tenses. He’s pretty sure that no one else is being as observant as he is. Maybe no one else has ever seen as much of Karkat as he has!

 

In fact, John really isn’t paying any attention to what the trolls are discussing, and wow. The more he ones out, the less his brain automatically translates the words. He can hear the trilling and sibilant sound of their native language, just a little, when he tries really hard to not pay attention. He just sits there, eyes mostly closed, with a goofy grin on his face. He had had no idea he was so tired. He sinks into the chair and relaxes.

 

He doesn’t even notice when the conversation lulls and lapses into silence. He feels something brush against his forehead, a hand with carefully trimmed nails brushing back the hair there. It’s a gentle gesture, and he can’t really think of who would touch him like that. He opens his eyes slowly and slowly becomes aware that he must have been asleep.

 

Gamzee, across from him, is dozing lightly against the arm of his own chair, mumbling a little about no, don’t leave yet we still have to motherfucking talk about, or something. Karkat is perched on the arm of John’s chair, one arm flung across the back, the other frozen in the act of brushing back his bangs.

 

“Hi, Karkat,” John laughs nervously, and breathes a sigh of relief when the troll moves again, neatly pulling away and standing.

 

“Let’s go,” he says to the floor, not meeting John’s eyes. “I’ll take care of this next part myself.”

-7-7-7-7

“Um, exactly where are we going?” John asks, his breath leaving him in a little rush as he gently touches the soft fabric laid out before him. John had been asked to use his talent for speaking English to request a list of items that Karkat had given him. He had no idea what much of it would be used for, but he has requested the items from Agent Rogers nonetheless.

 

He remembers reciting “formal clothing” from the list, but somehow it never occurred to him that he might be asked to wear the neatly pressed suit himself.

 

“We’re taking the second meeting,” Karkat responds immediately, voice devoid of its usual bite as he concentrates on trying to pull on his regular uniform without jostling his arm. Tavros said it should be healed completely soon, but that the soreness would probably last a few days.

 

“When you say ‘we,’” John breathes, feeling like his eyes are going to pop out of his head. Sure, Karkat doesn’t mean-

 

“I mean that I will be answering questions and you will be translating for me. Why is that so difficult to understand?”

 

John swallows nervously and picks up the clothing presented to him, wandering into the room that Dave had been shoved into that first day to change. He doesn’t think the suit fits him very well, but it is nice, and pretty comfortable actually! Now that he’s thinking about it, how long has it been? The ship crashed into his school on a Thursday. He’s slept a few times, so it’s probably been a few days. He should really make time to find a clock or something.

-8-8-8-8

The meeting isn’t exactly interesting, so much as it makes John super nervous, and John being so nervous puts Karkat on guard. Sometimes John doesn’t repeat Karkat’s answers word for word. Sometimes he makes them more polite, which earns him little glares, but he knows that on some level, the troll appreciates the effort.

 

They hold the meeting in a weird building, he thinks probably on campus, because the structure seems pretty familiar. There are a ton of those men in suits, besides Agent Rogers, who acts as their escort. John is almost overwhelmed by the amount of important people breathing the same air as him. There’s the President of the United States, the British Prime Minister, and a few other political leaders that he can’t identify by name. John doesn’t like history or political science class that much.

 

John wonders what Tavros had told them previously, and Gamzee before that, because the humans seem to have a pretty good understanding that the trolls are mostly peaceful, and now they’re just beginning to outline what deal they can come to.

 

“We can’t let these monsters stay on our planet,” someone says, from far away, and John repeats the words under his breath and hears Karkat scoff at them.

 

“They have a lot to offer you,” John says immediately, voice only quaking a little. He waits a moment for Karkat to back him up with some actual examples, and repeats them as soon as their past his sharp teeth. “Advanced, medicine, better space equipment, even- what do you mean?” he turns mid sentence to catch Karkat’s eyes, which close in frustration a little.

 

“Protection,” Karkat repeats, and John does his best to simply repeat every word he hears, when he realizes all those political figures are staring at him, waiting for him to continue. “It’s not like we’re the only alien species out there, fuckass. But we’re definitely one of the toughest you’re likely to encounter. Alternians have been conquerors for a long time. We offer protection of a planet we inhabit, regardless of whether we rule or simply coexist.”

 

The room is silent for a few moment, as further translations are made, people think. John slouches down in his chair, leaning over to his friend to whisper in his ear.

 

“You guys are really going to stay if you can?” he tries to keep the hopefulness out of his voice. That must seem weird to Karkat.

 

A hand brushes gently over his leg, beneath the table where no one can see, and John suppresses the startled jump it causes.

 

“Why wouldn’t we? We found what we were looking for,” Karkat doesn’t turn away fast enough. John sees the calm, gentleness in his eyes and. He wants to say that he doesn’t know what it means, but he does. He sees people with that look in their eyes all the time. He watches enough movies to know.

 

Karkat clears his throat, now refusing to meet John’s eyes. “A planet that meets our needs, has room for us.” John doesn’t buy that excuse for a second. Not for Karkat.

 

“Why would you offer us protection, these advancements, at such a low cost? Most of what your peer mentioned to us was your willingness to use the space we offered you that we, ourselves, do not inhabit.”

 

Karkat’s head swivels around so that he can look over at the woman asking this questions, even before John is quite finished with repeating it. He nods respectfully and John watches as the very human gesture catches a few people off guard. Karkat holds the woman’s gaze for a moment, testing. When she smiles at him, just a little, refusing to back down, Karkat answers.

 

“Because we are you,” John finds himself repeating, just as confused as the rest of the murmuring people in the room.

 

“Some of your people say that aliens built the pyramids, and they’re wrong. You did. What aliens did, what Alternians did, was put you here in the first place.” Immediately the room erupts into questions and confused outbursts. John knows it’s a lie, but it’s a better explanation than, “we made your universe while we were playing a video game.”

 

“Do you have proof?” someone asks, loudly, as the room finally begins to settle.

 

“Our Ruler Gamzee Makara has given you permission to take a blood sample and compare it with your own,” Karkat says, his tone suddenly formal despite the language barrier. “On the agreement that it will not be done in secret, it will not be kept for future study.”

 

There is a flurry of agreement, because of course they want to see proof, and if it’s true, of course they can trust these aliens, at least a little.

 

“But who-” John begins in a whisper, but is immediately cut off.

 

“Me.”

 

“But-”

 

“I have the blood that made yours, mine is the closest match, it’ll work the best as proof.” Karkat’s teeth are bared a little, and he’s not happy, but he’s sitting perfectly still. “Gamzee knows what he’s doing. It’s a pretty good plan.”


	8. Company

“Are you sure she’s, uh, okay?” Tavros asks quietly, turning away from Rose’s room with concern painted across his face. Dave shrugs in response moves on to the next room, just one more down on the long hallway. He hasn’t been down here yet, even though Tavros had offered him the room decorated by broken records. He doesn’t want to think about the fact that he’s been drifting off in chairs, or propped up next to Tavros’s bed, texting or playing games on his phone, or sometimes just watching the alien go about his business.

 

Dave is alright with Rose not being ready to come out of her room yet. It means she won’t have the opportunity to study him, and see into his head, the way she has such a knack for doing. He knocks on the next door down, the one with the atomic symbol on the door, and hears Jade rustling around inside, probably tripping over things.

 

He lets out a soft breath as he feels the heat of Tavros’s body behind him. The alien has taken to standing rather close to him, and Dave isn’t sure whether it’s because it makes the troll feel safe, or. Something else.

 

 _I don’t think he ever even noticed me._

 

Dave Strider is not ready to face the fact that Tavros used to have romantic feelings for him. He’s even less ready to deal with the disappointment he feels when he thinks about it.

 

“What is it?” Jade asks, opening her door and walking out into the hallway to join them. Dave steps forward a little at the same moment that Tavros steps away from him, until they’re standing a good, normal friendship distance.

 

“They should, uh, be back soon,” Tavros stutters. He opens his mouth to continue but Dave finishes the thought for him. It’ll take forever to let the Taurus mumble his way through the explanation again.

 

“We got a message from John and Karkat about an hour ago, saying they were finishing up and they have important news.” Dave glances up at the alien beside him, silently asking if he’s forgotten anything, but Tavros just smiles, his cheeks a little flushed. Probably embarrassed.

 

“Also, they’ve lifted the movement ban, so we’re gonna have company pretty soon.”

 

Back down the hallway, the door to Rose’s room creaks open gently, just as Dave’s words are leaving his mouth. After a moment, the blonde emerges, glancing both ways down the hallway before closing the door gently behind her.

 

“What are we waiting for?” she asks, standing there, perfectly prim and proper. When she looks at Tavros this time, there is a gentle spark of recognition there.

-0-0-0-0

“So what were you up to in there?” Dave asks as they walk. Jade is ahead of them, talking to Tavros about dreams and her dog, and a bunch of other things that Dave just sums up as “crazy talk.”

 

“Just taking some time to think,” Rose replies, staring straight ahead. Her lavender eyes are wider than usual, like she’s really taking everything in.

 

There’s not much more to say, so they both settle in for a comfortably silent walk, with the little bits of Jade’s cheerful chatter drifting from ahead of them. It’s nice, and it occurs to them, separately, that it’s been a long time since they were all just together. School, jobs, going home in the summer; Dave can’t remember the last time John dragged them all in front of a TV for a Nic Cage marathon, or Rose insisted that she be the one to decorate their dorms.

 

One second they’re all walking along, content as can be, and the next there’s a horrible crash up ahead and the sound of what is unmistakably Karkat yelling at someone.

 

“You inconsiderate fuck! Did it never occur to you to maybe just stop being a fucking lunatic and let it go? I am so ashamed of you right now. Do you see this? This is fucking shame. I should have let scientists poke _you_ full of holes.”

 

“Sorry, Kar. Noww, don’t be mad.”

 

-1-1-1-1

Karkat turns and walks away, motioning with his hands for John to follow him. The human stares up at the new alien in awe, but quickly follows after the angry Cancer. He’s holding onto another troll by his arms, steering him into a hallway and then into an open, empty room.

 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asks, and he sounds like a parent scolding their child.

 

“Thorry, KK,” the other alien responds, wiping at a trickling yellow cut on his dark lips.

 

“I put you on different fucking spaceships. You haven’t even seen his face in almost a sweep and a half. I can’t believe that the first thing you do is egg him on for a fight. Seriously, Captor. You are going to fucking let this go before he almost kills you again.”

 

John stands awkwardly in the doorway, feeling like he’s intruding on something private. He can’t really force himself to look away though. Something in his gut keeps telling him to keep an eye on this new alien. Keep an eye on how close they are standing, Karkat’s hand still gripping at cloth.

 

The troll sighs exaggeratedly, and finally looks over Karkat to the human. He smiles, mouth full of sharp teeth that make John nervous. “Oh, I didn’t realithe you had company.” His tone is joking, and he lifts the glasses over his eyes to look at John without them in the way.

 

His eyes shine like broken glowsticks, like something molten, like stars, and John feels the hair on his neck standing up, like electricity is flowing gently over him. Karkat hits the troll gently on the side of his head.

 

“Quit it.” He says simply, and the glasses go back on, blocking out that electric shine.

 

“Thorry, KK,” he doesn’t sound sorry at all. “Tho, John.” John starts at his name, but he kind of already had a feeling that this was another person he’d met before. “I heard you’d been tending to the General’th woundth.”

 

“Uh, well, I guess so,” John responds, despite the way Karkat is silently trying to tell him to _just not say anything_. “Someone shot him, I couldn’t just leave him to take care of himself!” The alien’s smile tones down, turning gentle, and he steps away from Karkat and right up to the human, sticking out one hand. His nails are curiously rounded, unlike the others he’s seen.

 

“Tholluckth,” he says, and Karkat, over his shoulder, mouths the same name, but without the lisp.

 

“Hi, Sollux,” John says, shaking his hand firmly, but not too firm. His father always said you could learn a lot from the way a man shook hands. He wasn’t sure if the same could be said about aliens. “You’re still bleeding,” he says, laughing nervously as he watches the mustard colored blood trickle down Sollux’s chin.

 

The troll steps back and wipes it away, grumbling a little. Karkat claps him on the shoulder, a friendly gesture, on his way past.

 

“Alright, fuckass, you stay here,” he says, pointing at the yellowblood. “I’m gonna go find out what the damage is.” He reaches out for John as he leaves Sollux alone in the empty room, holding the human’s arm like an escort. It makes John feel ridiculously happy and silly at the same time. Like Karkat is some alien prince escorting him to the ball. He shakes his head to clear the thoughts away.

 

“I barely even hit him,” Sollux gripes just as they walk out of earshot, and Karkat exhales a little laugh, but it sounds pained. “I’m going to kill them,” the Cancer mutters, just loud enough for John to hear.

 

“What just happened?” John asks. “Why did they. I thought you said you were all friends?”

 

“Friends is a hard word, John. In my language, it can mean a person you are fond of, or a person you have to watch your back around. It also means enemy. Those two have a bit of a history.”

 

“So that’s the hate-boner thing, right?” he asks, and the startled look Karkat gives him is priceless. “I mean, I kind of remember something about you having different kinds of love and, I never understood…” he trails off, looking at the floor passing under his feet. He never understood how you could hate someone and be attracted to them.

 

Until he saw those trolls just now, fists punching, eyes shining. It was brutal, not something John would enjoy watching. But the looks on their faces had been out of place, completely absorbed, like they were the only two people in the world, for just a moment. It still didn’t make perfect sense, of course.

 

“Didn’t you feel that way for me?” he asks, his heart beating a little too fast. Their conversation is quickly coming to a close as they approach the pair of trolls still lingering by the entryway, one gently wiping purple blood from the other’s face.

 

“I was confused,” Karkat says slowly, like he’s afraid of telling the truth. “I thought I did, but I was wrong.”

 

“Then how did you-”

 

“You’re not mad are you?” the bleeding troll asks, looking at Karkat with big, sad eyes. Unlike the soldiers John has seen before, he isn’t wearing the leather suit, but rather something more like a wetsuit, cut off at the wrists and ankles. Over it, he wears a scarf around his neck, just barely hiding a set of fins on his neck, and what might even be a hint of gills showing. There is a small shock of bright purple amidst the otherwise normal, black hair, combed back from his face.

 

The woman beside him is dressed similarly, with a pair of cheap looking plastic goggles propped up over her hair and covered in small bits of jewelry here and there. _Her_ fins and gills are mostly on display, tinged a pretty, dark pink color. She smiles at Karkat and John as they approach, easily the friendliest alien John has ever laid eyes on.

 

“Hi John!” she greets, and waves at him, her other hand still holding a bloody scrap of fabric. “I was so excited when we found out this planet was yours!” She does a little dance in place, while the troll standing with her watches fondly.

 

“This is Feferi,” Karkat introduces, “and this is fuckass number two-”

 

“He doesn’t remember us? That’s no fun.”

 

“If you’ve got to call me that can I at least be number one?”

 

John doesn’t see anything move. Suddenly his ecto-sister is standing in front of him, hugging the life out of the female alien. Feferi makes this happy sound that’s kind of like a squeal and dances around in a little circle. The rest of them are completely forgotten as the two girls begin to talk at an alarming pace.

 

“I heard yelling,” Tavros says as he approaches. “So I, uh, tried to keep the humans away, but Jade got away from me.” The Taurus is panting a little, his cheeks flushed brown. He looks like he actually chased Jade down a hallway or two and despite everything, was unable to capture her. Dave and Rose emerge from the same hallway a moment later, walking at a slightly hurried pace.

 

Eridan sniffs in disdain upon seeing Rose, but she just smiles pleasantly at him and makes a short, mocking curtsey at him. He sneers and turns away, looking back and Karkat, his expression melting back into something to be pitied.

 

“You’re not vvery mad, right?”

 

“When am I not mad.” It’s not even a question. His face is set in that deep scowl, but the corners of his lips twitch a little as if they want to, dare John even think it, _smile_. Maybe friend is the same word as enemy in Alternian, but from where John is standing, it looks like his definition is more correct.

 

“I can think of quite a few timeth, you know, when you were alone with-”

 

“Captor, do not even finish that sentence.” Karkat turns to pin him with a look from where he’s wandered out from where they left him. Eridan bristles a little, but turns and purposely looks away, as if to cut himself off from the temptation of another fight.

 

They’re teasing him. John is delighted in these antics, these morsels of proof that they really are friends, that Karkat isn’t alone. He smiles at Dave as the blonde walks up to him, eyeing the newcomers with a strange, amused expression. Then he turns that same look on John, directs it at him, and the Heir is even more confused.

 

“Did anyone else arrive?” Rose asks, her voice carefully casual and patient. So much so that John turns to look at her in question. She blushes a little and turns her face away, caught. “I’m just curious,” she continues. “There are twelve of the trolls that we knew, and this would make half of them on this ship, including those two. Where did the rest of your team end up?” She poses the question to Karkat, who takes a break from staring a warning at Sollux to answer.

 

“I’m not sure exactly,” his dark lips quirk up into a smile. “But I know Terezi aimed for Texas.” He shoots a glance at Dave, whose eyebrows are lost under his bangs. “Thought she could surprise you there.”

 

“I think I remember her.” He says, voice perfectly even.

 

“Are you glad you weren’t there?”

 

“Hell yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so that's all of it. That's everything that I have written out so far. So from this point out, this story will update like a normal fanfiction, not ridiculously fast. So, thank you for reading so far, and I hope I can get the rest of it written up in a timely fashion.


	9. Progeny

When John and Karkat finally walk away, saying they need to talk to Gamzee before revealing whatever had happened, Rose stays behind in the entrance of the ship. There is a buzz of activity as the trolls meander, some equipped with armor and helmets, but most wearing pain clothes. It’s strange to look at these aliens, see their common features, recognize none of them, and finally remember.

She remembers the darkness that filled her up and spilled out her mouth as gibberish. She remembers her death. And behind those important memories, the ones that stand out so cleanly against everything else, is the memory of a smile. An alien, a woman, with exaggerated canine teeth and hesitation in her eyes, and her smile.

She doesn’t remember what happened, in the end, on the checkered battlefield finally alive with the splashes of troll and human blood. The light there on Skaia is too bright in her memory, drowning out everything else.

“You certainly are doing a lot of heavy thinking. Looks dangerous,” Dave says casually, glancing in her direction. His eyes are visible as he looks at her sideways, through the frames of his shades, his irises that swirling red that seem to brighten when he’s interested. He shifts again to face her, all expressionless again behind the mask that is Dave.

“Only for people without the capabilities for such thoughts,” she responds, just a little teasing. Rose looks past him to watch as Tavros pointedly avoids walking by Eridan on his way to them. He stops just short and awkwardly faces away, as though awaiting permission to join the conversation.

“I think your friend wants you back to himself,” she says quietly, barely loud enough for her brother to hear, and she’s a little disappointed that she can’t tell if his cheeks are flushed or if it’s just the lighting. He turns immediately and nods to the alien.

“Sup.”

“Gamzee wants to see all of you. The humans have given us an offer, but we’re not exactly sure if it’s fair.”

“Of course,” Rose answers, folding her hands in front of her. She’s a little nervous, if she’s going to be perfectly honest, about seeing the highblood again. To her, he will probably always seem dangerous and on the edge of calamity.   
-3-3-3-3

“The humans proposed that we can make a life here on this planet, but they want to restrict us to these areas,” Karkat says, pointing to a slowly revolving globe of the planet Earth. “Some of the leaders are interested in allowing um, what did you call it?” he turns to John, and the human is caught staring for just a moment.

“Oh, uh. Exchange programs! That’s what I’d call it at least.” He answers sheepishly, and the General goes back to his explanation as the other humans and trolls trickle into Gamzee’s meeting room. John tries to give everyone a welcome smile as they enter. They form a loose ring around Gamzee’s desk, watching.

“They’d allow one of our kind into their school system, into a foster family, and we would take one of theirs in return. I’m not sure how that would even work out, though. And there’s one other thing we still haven’t discussed,” he looks briefly at the trolls in the room and then ducks his head a little, cheeks tinged pink.

“What’s that?” Gamzee drawls, looking up from a list of conditions translated into Alternian for him.

“They usually do the exchange thing with children.”

The room is awkwardly silent as each of the trolls slowly looks at their feet, except Gamzee, who continues to gaze directly at Karkat’s flushed face, and Feferi, who bounces on her heels once and then folds into herself to hide the gesture.

“What’s the problem?” John asks the silence, turning to face Jade, who gives him a little shrug in response.

“We don’t have any children,” Tavros says quietly. “We were the youngest, um, I mean, the last generation. There isn’t a, uh, mother grub anymore.”

“Well, there is someone wwho could do it,” Eridan says slowly, immediately receiving a light smack from his matesprit.

“We can’t rely on that,” she says, turning to look at Gamzee and giving a flowing, regal curtsey. “May I speak, Grand Highblood?”

“Of course,” he says immediately, smiling with all of his sharp teeth in view. “You’d be motherfuckin’ sitting in this here chair now if you’d have wanted to.”

“By the time a new Mother Grub is converted, the oldest of the trolls we have left will have died. By the time she is prepared to give the first eggs, most of us will be too old to care for them. Besides the fact that we have no way to grant a Lusus anymore. We don’t have imperial drones. There’s no way we could live with the old system.” She looks around the room at each of them, and they can see the Queen she would have made, regal, stunning, intelligent.

“We will have to adopt the other method,” she sums. “Most of our females still have the capability to bear young, just not on the scale of the Mother Grub. And of course we wouldn’t force anyone to have a child they didn’t want. But we have enough pairs to ensure our survival, and that’s the point of this, isn’t it?”

“Well spoken,” Gamzee says, his eyes narrow and more sober than most of them are comfortable with. “If we’re gonna live with humans then we better adopt some of their ways, huh? Seems like a motherfuckin decent way to start.”

“So tell me what’s wrong with these places,” he adds slowly, turning back to the globe spinning on its painfully slow rotation.

“Most of those areas would be considered inhabitable for humans,” Rose says, stepping forward, nodding once at the indigoblood in greeting. “These are desserts, and this is a frozen wasteland. They’re giving you anything they can’t use themselves, it looks like.”

“That’s fine. We should be able to, uh, build something to, maybe, negate those effects.” Tavros says, looking fairly certain of himself. “Well, maybe not us, but, um, you know. Our engineer.”  
-4-4-4-4  
John stands by the door while Karkat and Gamzee talk about something in hushed tones. He feels like he should leave, go somewhere and mind his own business but. The idea of walking away from Karkat is a little scary. So instead he waits.

“Wow, it’s really weird to think that they’re so grown up!” Jade says, leaning against the wall next to him. It’s a welcome distraction.

“We’re grown up, too,” he says, but it’s almost a joke, coming from him.

“Feferi says she’s going to probably be one of the first to try having a baby. She says she wants to know what it’s like, and that seatrolls are a dying sub-race. She’s going to have to wait a few years though. Apparently Eridan doesn’t like the idea.”

“Oh,” John says. It is strange, to think that these people are his age, but they’re thinking about having kids! Well, some of the trolls, most of them if he thinks about it, are actually older than their friends. After all, Tavros did say they were the youngest…

“You’re pretty gossipy today,” he accuses, but his sister just smiles and lets out a little giggle.

“Well, Feferi is really excited, so I am too! She’s trying to convince Eridan to use science to help her with a project, too. She wants to make an imperial drone system, but on a really small scale. You know, for the matesprit pairs that don’t have a female. Maybe you could help. I bet what she wants to do is kind of ecto-biology anyway.” She barely gives him time to respond before she flounces away, completely at home in the giant spacecraft.

Karkat steps out of the meeting room and strides over in a manner that most people would probably find intimidating. John smiles up at him and enjoys the way Karkat can’t quite seem to hold his gaze.

“All done?”

“With Gamzee. We have a few things left to do before we’re done for the day, but then I need to get away from these idiots.” He’s implying something, but John isn’t quite understanding the message.

“Maybe we could go somewhere,” Karkat tries again, looking pointedly at a wall. “Somewhere not here.”

“Maybe somewhere, just the two of us. Show me something.”

Oh. “Okay!” John says, before he really thinks about the implications of those words. He’s overcome with excitement for a moment before he remembers that they still have things to do.

“What do we still have to do?”

“Get the rest of the idiots,” he replies, rubbing at his temples with one hand as though warding off a headache. He gestures with a nod of his head and begins to walk down the corridor, shoulders slouched in minor defeat. John reaches out, briefly lets their hands touch and then shoves his fists in his pockets, staring straight ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really sorry that it's been so long. I finally have internet in my new apartment and I will try to update this regularly. Also, I'm totally open to suggestions on pairings that don't mess up any of the ones I already mentioned. It might be something I mention once and I might become something I can focus on. Anyway. Thank you all for sticking with me!


	10. Lost in Translation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone hadn't noticed, the chapter names are complete BS.  
> Also, warning for language.  
> As usual, thank you to everyone who's been supportive, it really does help me get back into the swing of things.

There is something horrible invading John’s heart. It squirms and writhes and crushes against the soft organ as he watches Karkat greet the arriving trolls. At first the feeling is like curiosity and excitement as he sees familiar object and shapes. Then it turns cold and clenching as a troll steps forward and wraps Karkat in a hug that lingers a little too long. She presses a kiss against his grey cheek before moving swiftly away, a devilish smile plastered over his lips.

She turns sightless eyes to him, and John looks away reflexively, hiding from that cruel smile. Her uniform is different than the others’. Over the regular leathers she has a vest with decorative badges done in the teal of her suit, edged in crimson red.

“Oh, is that John?” she asks, and makes a bit of a show of smelling the air in his general direction before letting out a faint cackle.

She stands directly in front of him, hands on her hips, one still clutching a long red cane which she doesn’t seem to need. John forces himself to look at her, past her, to where Karkat is trying to avoid being gathered into another hug by a slightly shorter troll whose giggles grow in intensity the more he dodges.

“So Karkles had the right idea after all,” she says, frowning a little and tilting her head to one side. “It didn’t occur to me that you’d move your residence. He must have researched more than I did.”

“Where did you go?” John can’t stop himself from asking, earning a wicked smile in return. It’s the way he imagines a shark might smile, if it had the ability. Or a man-eating dragon.

“Texas.”  
-6-6-6-6  
Karkat gives a short introduction to John for each of the trolls that arrived. As soon as it’s over, they’re immediately backing away from the crowd and shifting over into one of the alcoves near the spaceship’s main entrance. John tries to remember each of their names.

Terezi, the one that made him nervous and sad, is the equivalent of a lawyer or bounty hunter. She had once had red feelings for Karkat but he never returned them.

Vriska, the blueblood with the robotic arm and eyepatch. Karkat says she’s a psychopath right to her face and she just nods in agreement. She’s an agent for Gamzee, something to do with mind control and top secret business.

Equius, the other blueblood who happens to be the engineer that Tavros had mentioned earlier. He’s taller than Karkat, and in fantastic shape, as can be seen by the muscles in his arms and legs. The leather suit seems almost lewd on him, it covers his body like a second skin.

Nepeta, the greenblood who stands directly beside Equius at almost any given time, sometimes reaching out to paw playfully at him or catch his attention. Karkat says they’re moirails, soulmates in a sense that’s hard to comprehend. Equius is teaching her the work that he does because he’s too afraid to let her do the job she was originally assigned.

Aradia, the redblood with the vacant stare that seems almost menacing. She’s beautiful, even for an alien, John readily admits. But there’s something unnerving about her, spectral, even.

The last troll that John is introduced to in a woman garbed in lengths of black and green fabric who wears a serious expression but a gentle smile. She takes effort not to touch anyone around her, though she allows Karkat to gently grasp her hand for a moment. She seems bright, for some reason, like she glows with some inner aura.

“I don’t remember her name,” John confesses, hitting himself on the forehead a few times.

“Kanaya,” Karkat responds as he pulls a few things off the walls. Something that might be a gun, a large hooded jacket. “Her name is Kanaya. She’s considered an aristocrat even when there’s no aristocracy.”

“She’s your friend?” John asks, not sure why he needs to know. His heart is still squeezing uncomfortably in his chest.

“Yes,” Karkat admits after a moment of deliberation. “I don’t know if I could say she was my moirail, but she’s close. She’s kind of motherly.” He pulls the jacket on over his leather suit and zips it up the front. With just that small adjustment, he already looks more human.

“We’re really going out somewhere?”

“You were in charge of where we’re going. So, only if you have somewhere to go.” Karkat’s eyes are narrowed, a little annoyed. John laughs nervously and nods in response, though.

“I’ve got a great idea.”  
-7-7-7-7  
Karkat almost walks away from John as they stand in front of an old fashioned cinema playing old action flicks. He turns to do so, but John reaches over and grasps his hand and yanks him toward the ticket booth.

“Two please,” he says through a bright grin to the lady behind the counter, who barely looks up at him. Karkat grumbles incoherently, but his hand slowly creeps into a better grip on John’s, and the human happily leads him inside the building.

He stops at the candy counter and gets popcorn, drinks, candy, everything. Karkat watches, trying to figure out what exactly they’re doing. He feels years younger, watching John deliberate over gummy bears and twizzlers.

They sit down in a mostly empty theatre and immediately decimate the popcorn despite their best efforts not to. When the movie starts, John leans forward in his seat with a smile the size of his face and Karkat allows himself to smile in the darkness.

It becomes apparent pretty quickly that, despite being able to understand John, Karkat hears the movie’s dialogue as a jumbled mess of sounds. He stays quiet though, just watching John’s enraptured expression for a while until the human catches him.

“What is it?” he whispers, even though no one would be able to hear him if he spoke normally.

“I don’t understand,” Karkat says, voice at a normal volume, and enjoys the look of horror John gives him.

“Well here is the part where the hero-”

“No, Egbert. I can’t understand it. It’s in English.”

John stares at him for a few minutes while his brain processes this information. Then he smiles sheepishly and sits back in his seat, staring at a box of gummy bears.

“Oh. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.” He shifts around like he’s going to get up and leave. Karkat tries to tell himself not to move, to just let it happen, and later he’ll blame his past self for acting impulsively.

Karkat’s hand slides across John’s leg, gently gripping his knee. After a moment of stunned silence, John’s hand touches his, lays across the back and slowly their fingers thread together. “I don’t mind, even if I don’t know what they’re saying,” Karkat whispers unintentionally.

Their hands stay entwined for the rest of the movie, which is pretty awful even by John’s standards. He leans close to the troll and repeats as much of the dialogue as he can in a whisper, but at some point he just starts adlibbing. He thinks Karkat has the cutest laugh, even though he barely hears it before the alien cuts himself off.  
-8-8-8-8  
“That was fun,” John says hesitantly as they exit the theatre. He feels kind of awkward in his cargo shorts and t-shirt next to Karkat. The alien’s covered by what is essentially a hoodie and long pants, his inhuman skin hidden completely from all but the most persistent onlookers.

“Sure,” the troll responds, and only the faint smile on his lips stops John from thinking he’s annoyed with the whole experience.

“What do we do now?” John asks, looking up and down the street. There are restaurants, but Karkat’s pretty suspicious looking. An arcade. Bowling, what looks like a strip joint, and a coffee shop. None seem like a good idea.

“I guess we head back,” Karkat says slowly, hunching further into his jacket as a few people walk a little too close to them. They walk slowly, shoulders almost touching, but silent. It was a good night. A fun night.

“Hey, where you going?”

John turns to face the man yelling at them. He’s stumbling out of what must be a bar, considering his thoroughly drunken appearance, two people making a sad, inebriated attempt to follow him without falling.

“Uh, home,” John replied brightly, and takes a step away. He’s always been uncomfortable around drunk people.

“Kid like you? Waitin’ for the minivan?” He keeps walking forward, his steps menacing.

“Fuck off, nooksniffer,” Karkat hisses, and the man stops dead in his tracks.

“The fuck was that? Your boyfriend speak some kinda fucking weird language?” despite his talk, he falls back a little, intimidated.

“Come on,” the alien whispers. His hand grasps John’s and he pulls the boy away, shooting a burning look at the drunken guy. He yells a couple more absurd, lewd things while his friends try t shut him up.

John looks over his shoulder and smiles, feeling the air about him and pressing it flat to the concrete, sweeping across the sidewalk behind them. He doesn’t keep watching long enough to see the idiot trip on his face, instead turning his smile to the alien beside him.

There’s something in Karkat’s eyes in that moment that John can’t mistake. He wants to try to deny it. He wants to pretend he didn’t see it. But it’s there, that soft spark of happiness and longing, it’s in his breath when he lets out a little laugh. John feels it rush over him and can do nothing to stop it. And then he stops trying.

He links their fingers together and looks at the ground, cheeks warm as they walk back to the University.


	11. Coming Together

“So you figure you’ll just walk on out there and, what? Hope they don’t eat you?” Dave asks, folding his arms over his chest and watching from a safe distance. Tavros chuckles a little at him and presses a hand against the bars of the zoo cage. On the other side, some kind of wild cat that Dave should remember from that zoology class hisses warily but stalks closer, curious.

“I get the feeling I’ll be, uh, able to, um, communicate with them the same was as, uh, our animals,” Tavros says with minimal stuttering. His concentration is on the feline before him. His yellow eyes slowly fall shut and Dave watches as the, oh, duh, puma closes its eyes in return, its eyelids twitching.

Dave glances at the zoo worker standing next to the wrought iron door, nervously glancing from the alien, to the ground, the cat, Dave, back and all around. Dave’s not sure if he’s more nervous about having met an alien life form or the cat escaping.

“Good, alright,” Tavros mutters, sticking a hand through the bars fearlessly. Dave feels a shudder go over his skin as the large predator walks right up and rubs against the Taurus’s arm. “Bring me the, uh, basket now,” he says, looking over his shoulder at his human companion, his eyes bright and happy. It makes Dave smile, just a little, against his will.

He picks up the wicker basket that he’d been charged with watching, feeling the living creature inside shifting. He tries not to look nervous at all when he nods at the zoo worker and says, “Open the door.”

The gate creaks a little, but the cat inside makes no move to escape, instead staying near the bars as Tavros indicates with his hands and little murmurs. The troll walks around to the entrance, meeting Dave there. He smiles brilliantly when he reaches into the basket and lifts out an Alternian feline of some sort. It has smooth, hard pebbles of scales on its face and legs, but fur covers the rest of its small body. Tavros cradles it gently against his chest and walks through the gate.

“Give it a try,” he says, his voice light and soft as he sets the tiny cat on the ground. It hunches back into his legs in an effort to hide from the larger Earth cat, but after a moment, it walks slowly over, lying on the ground a few inches from Tavros’s feet. Dave watches as the infant creature slowly emergences from its protection and presses its nose to that of the puma.

“She always wanted to, uh, have a kit,” Tavros says, his smile just a little sad. Dave’s not confident enough to follow him into the puma’s cage, but he wants to reach out and reassure him. “But she couldn’t. So she said she’d be happy to, uh, take this one. I think that’s, um, how it will work out best.”

Dave considers it for a moment, then looks down at the empty basket in his arms. “So we have to do this for the rest of those animals you’ve got on the ship?” He can’t imagine that much time spent introducing animals to potential foster parents. But then, he can’t think of anything better he could be doing.

“You don’t have to-” Tavros starts to say, looking down and away.

“Well, I can’t let you do it by yourself.” Dave states blankly. He rolls his eyes a little bit behind his shades, and knows that the troll will pick up the movement as if he weren’t even wearing them. “You might get eaten by a lion and then Gamzee would be all mad at me for not being a hero and protecting you.”

Tavros laughs a little bit as he exits the cage, standing back so that it can be locked again. The tiny Alternian cat rubs experimentally against its new mother. Dave reaches out and puts a hand on the small of the brown-blood’s back.   
-0-0-0-0  
John wakes to the sound of someone speaking in a low and dangerous tone. He’s too comfortable to move, so he shifts around on his pillow, quite happy when it moves to accommodate him. Which is strange, his foggy brain slowly realizes, as pillows do not usually move. His eyes slowly blink open.

The world is fuzzy without his glasses, but he can still see shapes and colors pretty well. The first thing he sees is washed out color, then black hair and then two spots of red loom out and stare into him. He feels the first bits of worry wash over him before his glasses are placed gently on his nose and he realizes that those two pinpricks of color are, in fact, Karkat’s eyes.

“Didn’t mean to wake you,” the troll grumbles, looking away. John spies the figure of their commander and leader sitting backwards on a chair, waving at him and turns his face back into Karkat’s shoulder. The alien stiffens against him a little, but then relaxes.

John recounts their trip back to the ship the night before and is glad that his face is hidden. He hadn’t expected a lot of the things that happened, but the most surprising thing was very glaringly obvious to him.

He was still a little disappointed that Karkat had leaned in, their faces close and breath mingling, and then pulled away with a sigh and a “Goodnight, John.”

He takes a deep breath and lets it out, shifting his head so that his glasses frames aren’t digging into Karkat’s flesh. If he opens his eyes, he can see an expanse of grey skin, yellow nails on one gesturing hand as its owner grumbles at Gamzee. He can hear the beat of Karkat’s heart, he realizes, and presses his eat flat against the alien’s chest in order to hear it better.

It beats a little faster than his own, sounds a little different.

“John.”

Oops.

“John what are you doing?”

He looks up and smiles sheepishly at the frown on Karkat’s features. Gamzee is snickering at them from his place.

“Thought you’d wanna know too, friend,” the troll says, addressing John. He sits up a little in the bed, pulling at the collar of his shirt as it slips into an uncomfortable position. He nods and then settles back against Karkat’s shoulder, avoiding making eye contact with the Cancer for now.

“Our boy Tav got the first of the animals set up in these zoos of yours,” Gamzee says, a wide, proud smile on his face. “We should be getting notice any day now that we’ve got ourselves a motherfucking new home. You helped us out a ton, brother.”

John feels a strange dread run through him, like ice water trickling over his spine.

“You’re not leaving, are you?”

“Well, we’ll be moving camp, if that’s what you mean. Gotta start building.”

John doesn’t realize that he has a firm, probably painful grip on Karkat’s arm until the troll gently reaches down and strokes at his hand gently, reassuringly.

He doesn’t say anything else, but he pays more attention as Gamzee and Karkat continue discussing their plans. Karkat’s hand stays touching his, stroking, petting, and John holds onto it like a lifeline.   
-1-1-1-1  
Rose sits on the bed she’s been given and stares at the walls, at the books. Everything. It seems so fleeting. Jade is spending all of her time with Feferi. Dave has been accompanying Tavros on whatever work they’re doing on the surface. And of course John is attached to Karkat like some kind of parasite. She takes another look around the room and then walks to the door.

She knocks on another door in the hallway which houses her perfect bedroom. The door slides open and the girls inside turn identical friendly looks her way.

“Hey, Rose!” Jade chirps, Feferi waving a frantic greeting from beside her.

“Hello, Jade, Feferi. I was wondering if there would be any problem with me exploring the ship unchaperoned. It doesn’t seem as though there is anyone to accompany me.” She smiles softly when Feferi automatically says, “We’ll go with you!”

“That’s not necessary. I just don’t want to break some sort of protocol.”

The troll takes a moment to think it over and then nods. “It should be fine,” she says. “Karkat’s threatened pretty much everyone about bothering any of you.”

She leaves the room feeling as though she should have asked the more relevant question on her mind.

Why am I here?

Wandering the ship is fascinating. She runs into a few trolls, but she holds her head high and they avoid her as though she’s speaking gibberish and glowing with darkness again. Usually meditation, sitting still is the best way for Rose to collect her thoughts, but today she feels the need to move.

She finds herself walking down dark corridors, entirely unafraid of the lack of light. It’s still in her, after all. She steps into room after room, examining her thoughts as she’s been left to do since she and Jade were brought there.

She pauses, the soft thuds of her footfalls stilling. Ahead, there’s a sound, something infinitely gentle and beautiful. Someone humming a tune.

She steps forward without looking where she’s going, barely taking note of the walls around her, walking toward the sound and, eventually, a faint glowing light. It leads her to a room awash in color, specks of light dancing on the walls, the ceiling, and floor like a disco ball.

A tall troll dressed in flowing green robes stands in the center of the room, hands flitting over a selection of fabrics laid out on some kind of table. Rose’s heart squeezes uncomfortably in her chest and feels everything that is her being reaching out, forward.

“Kanaya?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, we're actually getting pretty close to the end of this, though it may not seem like it. I may actually write a series of stories about what happens later, to each character, or set of characters, stand alones, if you will. We'll see. Anyway, wow! So many hits, and kudos, and comments! Thank you all so much!


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